Police, Immigration flush out fulani herdsmen

Page 67: Daily Graphic, April 26, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A COMBINED team of personnel from the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service at the weekend flushed out some Fulani herdsmen from the Agotime-Kpetoe-Batime area of the Volta Region.
Five of the leaders of the herdsmen are currently in custody in Ho, while more than 600 cattle were pushed/repulsed to Togo where they came from.
The leaders in custody are Mahamadu Fulani, Abdulai Mahamadu, Yaro Mahamadu, Tahiru Kole and Ibrahim Amadu.
The Food and Crops Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is to be contacted to assess the damage caused to farms in the area.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, has subsequently directed all policemen in border towns to collaborate with their GIS counterparts to deal with the Fulani menace as the farming season is about to set in.
Mr Quaye has also warned traditional authorities to desist from negotiating with Fulani herdsmen to use their terrain, only for them to end up destroying the farms of their subjects.
The Director of Police Public Affairs, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwasi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic that the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP David Ampah-Benin, who led the operation, had information that some traditional leaders had allowed the cattle of the Fulani herdsmen to graze on their land.
He said the cattle had destroyed large tracts of farmland in the affected area.
According to him, the swift response from the police and the GIS helped to push back the Fulanis to Togo, where they had come from.
Regrettably, he said, some opinion leaders and chiefs often failed to notify the political and security authorities of the presence of the Fulanis until farmers started to complain.
DSP Ofori said the exercise was not a hate one against Fulanis but intended to check the wanton destruction of farms and water bodies.
He said the IGP had directed the various police commands to collaborate with the local assemblies to see how to manage those Fulani herdsmen already in the country.