An emergency meeting of four District Security Councils is underway at Drobonso in the Sekyere Afram Plains District in the Ashanti Region to discuss recent murders of herdsmen and local crop farmers.
The Districts include; Sekyere Afram Plains, Asante Akyem North, Sekeyere Kumawu and Sekeyere Central.
District Chief Executives and Police Commanders for these areas as well as other stakeholders are part of the meeting to discuss ways to find a lasting solution to the herder-farmer issues in the areas.
[contextly_sidebar id=”YZPvh7qoUrzyDWScs7SR3eBUMqbE4Bjt”]The meeting has been necessitated by the murder of three herdsmen at Drobonso after a security guard with the Scanfarms Ghana Limited was killed at Agogo two weeks ago.
The Ashanti Regional Security Council has since beefed up joint police and military personnel in the area to avert possible reprisals.
District Chief Executive for Sekyere Afram Plains, Joseph Owusu, told Citi News the meeting would also discuss the establishment of a cattle ranch, within the troubled areas as a way of finding a solution to the conflict.
“We are meeting at Drobonso to find solutions to the current killings. After that; we will issue a statement. We were hoping to get REGSEC to deploy more men so we can beef up patrols in the four main districts. We have other meetings with key stakeholders including the traditional leaders, cattle owners and herdsmen. We are doing all these to calm tempers and find a lasting solution.”
“I believe that there is no military solution to this issue, we need a fully fledged cattle ranch like the President did in the Eastern Region. We are facilitating that. We are in talks with the traditional leaders to give us at the lands so the government can take over from there,” he added.
Meanwhile, police have the released bodies of the herdsmen who were killed over the weekend to the Nomadic herdsmen community for burial.
Speaking to Citi News, the Ashanti Regional Chief for the Herdsmen Community, Alhaji Osman Bin Ahmed, said they are currently at the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital waiting for the bodies to be released to them.
“Burying them will not stop the police from doing their job,” he added.
Police are currently on a search for the persons who allegedly attacked and killed the three herdsmen at Drobonso.
“We are putting things together, and we’ve gone to the scene. The case is under investigation. We want to find out who did that action and bring the person to book,” Effiduase Divisional Police Commander, ACP Philip Asante added.
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By: Hafiz Tijani | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
