Fulani herdsmen harass Adaklu-Anyigbe communities

Trouble is brewing between the people of Agotime-Afegame in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District of the Volta Region and Fulani herdsmen whose cattle continue to destroy farms and other properties in the area.

Following recent reports of attacks by the Fulani herdsmen on unarmed farmers in the area, the regent of the town Nomono Donne Gamli has warned of retaliatory measures against the herdsmen and their marauding cattle if immediate steps are not taken to rid the place of the invaders.

The regent gave the warning at a durbar of the chiefs and people of the area to raise public awareness on deforestation and the dangers of bush burning at Agotime-Afegame.

He decried the impunity of the Fulani herdsmen who he said were armed and had been mounting raids on the defenceless people.

Regent Gamli called on the security agencies to investigate the allegations and find out the origins of the herdsmen for the appropriate action to be taken to avert any bloody clashes.

The Adaklu-Anyigbe District Chief Executive, Mr. Mawuli Kwame Dabi, called on the people of the area to exercise restraint saying the security agencies were on the ground and working to address the problem.

He also condemned the activities of the Fulani herdsmen saying they continued to be a major source of concern in the overall security situation in the district.

"Please trust the assembly to handle this issue. We know the extent of the damage they are causing and we are committed to halting it", he stressed.

In his address on the theme "Bushfire, environmental degradation and development", the Regional Manager of the Forestry Services Division of the Forestry Commission, Mr. Winfred E.K. Bimah, observed that as long as the economic conditions kept the third world in poverty, the only survival was to live off directly from the environment through clearing the forest to sell timber and other wood products as well as the use of crude methods of crop and livestock production that degrade and pollute the environment.

He advocated the promotion of rural and cottage industries, agro processing and marketing as viable alternative employment avenues outside rain-fed agriculture.

The Volta Regional Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Fire Service, Mr. Joy Agbleze, condemned the indiscriminate setting of bushfires that tended to destroy farms as well as electricity poles.

He described that attitude as anti-development and entreated the people to desist from doing so.

An official of the Volta Regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mr Maxwell Zu-Cudjoe, advised the people to stop the practice of using chemicals in fishing since it constituted a major threat to both aquatic life and human health.

"The use of agro-chemicals for fishing has already had a disas¬trous impact and many streams in which they have been used have become devoid of fish and other aquatic life forms", he stressed.