A special joint taskforce of military and Police personnel has arrived in Agogo in the Asante Akim North Municipality of the Ashanti Region, ostensibly to drive out a section of Fulanis from the area.
According to the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Tanko Mohammed, the operation will focus on evicting wandering Fulani herdsmen rather than those who have registered with the District Assembly and regularised their stay.
[contextly_sidebar id=”4MOgQTeu5p0amJSro7DoMnlePlp5XOl4″]He explained that it was the nomadic herdsmen who were causing havoc, which has triggered confrontations between them and the inhabitants, leading to a number of deaths.
“We have a team of police and military men who are currently at Agogo to go and augment the numbers already there. We have two types of Fulanis at Agogo now. There are those who have regularized their activities and are registered under the district assembly and have controlled their cattle. Those are not the ones the operation is meant to flush out. The operation is meant to flush out the nomads who travel all the way from Burkina Faso and sometimes from Edwira and other areas to come to the Agogo Afram Plains to allow their cattle to graze there because of the scarcity of grass in their original locations. So those are the Fulanis who pose danger to farms and farmers and they are those going to be flushed out.”
The recent clashes and new cases of death have triggered another national debate over the continuous stay of the Fulanis in the country.
ASP Tanko told Citi News the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Army Commander and heads of the Ashanti Regional Security Council have arrived in Agogo to interact with opinion leaders and residents to assure them of their commitment to deal with the matter at hand to restore peace in the area.
–
By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie