New Oworobong petitions President over activities of Fulani herdsmen

Turf battle between indigenous communities and Fulani herdsmen has taken another dimension as the chief and people of New Oworobong (Amate), in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern Region, have petitioned President John Dramani Mahama to act to avert a ticking time bomb in their community.

The petition, which has the signatures and thumbprints of 445 residents, accused some of the herdsmen of “heinous and despicable acts of armed robbery and raping of our women in the catchment area.”

“With sheer impunity, and audacity, the said Fulani herdsmen have been destroying farmlands and polluting our water bodies with the grazing of their cattle,” the petition, which has the Oworobonghene, Nana Brifa Dankwa III and the Assembly Member of the area, Mr Kofi Nkrumah Asante, as lead signatories, said.

The petition comes in the wake of unrest in the Agogo area in the Ashanti Region where the indigenes and nomadic herdsmen are engaged in bloody encounters over the destruction of farmlands and killing of cattle.

Oworobong people

New Oworobong, according to the petition, came into being when the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1960 acquired acres of the stool lands of Oworobong for the construction of the Akosombo Dam.

The affected citizens were resettled at the present location on more than 11,000 acres with each adult being allocated between three and six plots.

In New Oworobong (Amate), the majority of the people are farmers who cultivate food crops and vegetables but the petition said Oworobong communities, including Aboam and Mpaem Quarters, had to endure the menace of the nomadic herdsmen.

According to the petition, copied to 25 individuals and institutions, including the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah; the Inspector General of Police, the National Security Coordinator, the Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, the Eastern Regional Minister and Regional Security Council, all appeals to the nomadic herdsmen to desist from the wanton destruction of their farms had been ignored.

Accusation

The petition accused the leadership of the Fulani herdsmen which it listed as Alhaji Yakubu, Alhaji Dundu, Alhaji Yandu and Alhaji Dankwara as being recalcitrant and emboldened by claims that they had leased lands for their cattle-rearing activities in the area from Nana Osei Ababio II, the Chief of Nteso, a neighbouring community.

“Let the records show and stand that the subject-land was acquired by the government from Nteso and other stools for the resettlement of people affected by a national project, that is the construction of the Akosombo Dam.

“Once acquired by the government, the Nteso stool or any other stool has no colour of right, legal or otherwise to such divested lands and could not purport to have leased same to the said Fulani herdsmen,” the petition said.