A/R: Suspected herders set DCE’s cashew and maize plantation ablaze

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Gun-wielding cattle herdsmen reportedly stormed the cashew and maize farm belonging to a District Chief Executive in the Ashanti Region, Francis Oti Boateng.

The incident occurred just before 7am Wednesday morning, local farmers in the area told Dailymailgh‘s Jonathan Ofori.

The farm, located around the Kowereso and Dukusen, all communities in the Asante Akyem North District, was said to have been razed down by the suspected herdsmen.

The farmers in the community told Dailymailgh that the armed herders had earlier set some houses ablaze in a separate attack at Nhyiaeso, another community at Agogo.

In pursuit of the suspects, police came across two groups of cattle numbering about 120 at about 5km from the destroyed plantation.

After intense firing of gunshots, the armed herdsmen fled into the bush with their cattle, witnesses say.

“We also took the patrol team to the Dukusen village, where the herdsmen normally fire gunshots at night. The police destroyed a makeshift camp believed to be their hideouts”, a witness told Dailymailgh.

Police at the Agogo District Command confirmed the incident but did not want to go public on the matter.

The DCE, who doubles as the Chairman of the District Security Council in the area, has since been informed of the development.

“Actually he was not available but he has been told. In fact he is yet to go to the scene in the coming days”, a close source told Dailymailgh.

Farmers in Agogo, a naturally walled community, have been gripped in fear as nomadic herdsmen who were moved from the area have reportedly returned.

A joint police and military task force; known as ‘Operation Cow Leg’, was deployed to the area to help resolve recurrent controversies that existed between nomadic herdsmen and local crop farmers.

Though there are regulations prohibiting open grazing of cattle, it is not yielding any positive results.

In Ejura, another community in the Ashanti Region for instance, seven suspected herders were arrested early in January, after they set a 20-acre farmland ablaze.

They are yet to be charged.

Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo revealed in 2018 that his government had set-up its first cattle ranch in the Eastern Region to help deal with the herdsmen and cattle menace.

By Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH