Berekum Traditional Council denies ordering eviction of man who invested GH¢1m in goat farm over ‘taboo’

The Berekum Traditional Council has reacted to reports of a Ghanaian investor being ordered to remove his GH¢1 million goat farm from its land over a taboo.

The council invited the said investor to meet them so they could get to the bottom of the matter.

According to the Chief of Senasi and Kontihene of Berekum Traditional Council, Osahene Asomah Agyeman Sabi II, no such decision has been taken by the council.

Nana Agyeman Sabi II said that the investor, Founder and CEO of Semanhyia Learning and Development Farms, a prominent livestock breeding facility at Berekum Senase, Fredrick Benneh Frimpong, should engage the council to resolve the impasse.

“I don’t know whoever gave him that order. Because we haven’t met on it at the Tradition Council level and that place happens to be the highest decision-making body for the traditional area. We’ve not met, we’ve not taken any decision over his removal from our stool land.

“I would just advise him. He should come down and let us talk and see how best (sic) because if the land would reject you, you wouldn’t have been there by now,” he said in a JoyNews interview aired on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.

Benneh Frimpong disclosed that the chiefs of the Berekum area have asked that he evacuate his goats from the land in two weeks.

According to him, the evacuation, the chiefs explained, is due to a long-standing taboo that banishes goats from the town.

He explained that despite the existence of the taboo since his childhood, it was not exactly followed until a recent funeral of a chief prompted the slaughter of stray goats to enforce the taboo.

“In fact, when this order came, people were spreading rumours, everybody had something to say, and in about three days, a group of young guys with machetes came to the community and killed all the goats in the community. Everybody was very annoyed, angry, and marvelled,” he said on his YouTube channel, Farming in Africa.

Providing further details, he said he was summoned to the chief’s palace and was told to evacuate the land in two weeks.

Some members of the Berekum community have also said that they lost their goat farms after the order by chiefs and traditional rulers of the community.

According to them, the traditional rulers barred the rearing of goats in the community after an oracle revealed to them that it was the cause of some misfortunes in Berekum.

BAI/OGB

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