I Did No Wrong - Says Nana Akuoko Sarpong Over Fulani Herdsmen Furore

Nana Akuoko Sarpong - Agogohene

The Paramount Chief of the Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Wednesday broke his long silence on the furore over Fulani herdsmen in the Agogo area, denying allegations that he signed a secret pact with the herdsmen.

He also refuted claims that he derived personal benefits from the occupation of the herdsmen on Agogo Stool lands.

He conceded that there was an agreement between the Agogo Traditional Council and the Fulani herdsmen, but said that the agreement was signed at an open ceremony in 2006, adding that the proceeds accruing from the tenancy of the four-year deal were collected by the Administrator of Stool Lands.

“So there was no secrecy about this. It was an open house arrangement and discussion.

“It’s not the practice of the Agogo Traditional Council to enter into secret pacts”, he told the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Over the past few months, the people of Agogo have waged a relentless campaign to flush out Fulani herdsmen from the area, accusing the herdsmen of destroying farms, raping women and girls, killing people and indulging in all kinds of criminal activities.

The issue generated a lot of passion and public discussion with some citizens of Agogo at one point taking a militant and radical approach by resolving not to allow the paramount chief to perform the funeral and burial rites of his uncle.

National Security eventually intervened and gave an ultimatum to the Fulani herdsmen to vacate Agogo lands or risk forceful ejection.

As the hullabaloo on the Fulani herdsmen raged, the Paramount Chief of Agogo remained silent because he thought that the nature of media reportage on the matter did not make it appropriate for him to comment, apart from the fact that the media did not deem it necessary to seek his opinion.

“I don’t own cattle. My passion is planting trees and doing fish farming”, Nana Akuoko said, indicating that he has planted 10,000 hectares of teak trees.

“Sometimes, there is merit in the old wise saying that silence is golden and that genius is knowing when and where to stop”, he remarked.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong explained that the agreement signed between the Agogo Traditional Council and the Fulani herdsmen included conditions for the herdsmen to provide fencing for the cattle on the land they occupied and dig boreholes for the water needs of the animals.

He said to seal the agreement and in line with custom, the Fulani herdsmen were requested to pay GH¢5000 for drinks to the traditional council, a payment to which receipt was duly issued with the copies of the agreement kept at the municipal assembly.

According to Nana Akuoko Sarpong, the decision to sign the agreement was in the best interest of the people of Agogo, since the essence of it was to promote a meat industry in the area.

“I don’t regret entering into the agreement with the herdsmen because it was a perfect arrangement to sustain the growth of the meat industry”, he said.

He said the traditional council, realising that the Fulani herdsmen had breached the terms of the agreement in respect of fencing the land for the cattle and digging boreholes for the animals, initiated a legal action against them.

The Agogohene said currently, some Brazilian industrialists were in Agogo to study how cattle rearing had been successfully married with communal farming.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong said everything was going smoothly until nomadic herdsmen from Niger, Mali and other neighbouring West African countries invaded the area and began to create problems.

He said under normal circumstances, the traditional council should have dealt with the issue but it did not have the capacity to do so, hence the relevance of National Security intervention.

He said the menace of the Fulani herdsmen was not peculiar to Agogo, but other areas, particularly in the Afram Plains, which spanned the Northern, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Volta regions, except that the Agogo case had been hyped by the media.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong said the Agogo Traditional Council shared the worries of the people and would ensure that the Fulani herdsmen were flushed out of the area to safeguard their farms and property.

He, therefore, appealed to the people to be peaceful, law-abiding and go about their farming activities without any fear.

He expressed gratitude to the security agencies for throwing their weight behind the traditional council to deal with the situation.