MP denies issuing a 'shoot to kill' edict in Agogo

Asante Akyem North MP, Andy Appiah Kubi, denies issuing a shoot-to-kill edict against Fulani herdsmen in Agogo where they dominate with their cattle.

There is no love lost between the locals and the nomads. A situation which has led to conflicts resulting in deaths, rapes, destruction of farmlands and wanton attacks on both sides.

Mr Appiah Kubi said contrary to rumours that he has launched an operation to shoot and kill the herdsmen at will, no such directive is in place.

The “peace-loving” people of Agogo do not intend taking the law into their own hands and harming the herdsmen, he added that they are relying on the security agencies to deal with the situation.

“…We want to make sure our farmers are safe, we are very peace-loving people, we are not armed in anyway, we are soliciting the help of the security agencies,” the lawmaker said.

According to him, “there’s an insurgency of Fulani herdsmen on our farms destroying our lands, armed to the teeth,” adding that 35 locals have so far been killed by the herdsmen without any of the alleged perpetrators being prosecuted even though they “so many of our women have been raped, so many harmed and we are saying that enough of those things …”

This is what Mr Appiah Kubi said when he was asked if the locals retaliated by killing the Fulani and their cattle: “No, I’m not privy to 40 Fulani men killed by citizens of Agogo, no single Fulani person has been prosecuted for killing Agogo citizens, it is only yesterday that I heard a Fulani man have been killed at Afram Plains.” “It is never true that 40 Fulani have been killed… I don’t know if any cattle too have been killed,” he said.