Fulanis in the Suudu Baaba community in Ghana have expressed displeasure about what they described as callous killing of hundreds of their cattle.
At a press conference in Accra on Friday, Prof.Sheikh Osman Barry, National President of the Fulanis in Ghana, indicated that the action clearly signals deliberate attempt to subject them to economic vulnerability and political disfranchisement.
“About 1,500 cows estimated at GH¢6 million or $1.5 million were killed in the exercise,” he stated.
“About 50 Fulanis have lost their lives through cold blood murder, black magic and the practice of ritualism besides the huge number of settlements that were set ablaze in parts of the country,” he remarked.
Prof. Barry recalled many instances where people suspected to be of Fulani extraction – including others on pilgrimage to Mecca – were forced to alight from public transports and forced to surrender their genuine travelling documents.
While condemning the atrocities on them, he reiterated that Fulanis have co-existed with Ghanaians for more than 50 years during which period they founded a number of communities like Kanda, Cowlane and Nima in the Accra metropolis.
“We are by this medium appealing to President Nana Addo DanquaH Akufo Addo to ensure that peace prevails in the area while also considering compensation to victims,” Prof. Barry stated.
In response to a question, Prof. Barry claimed that a lot of the reports that came through were masterminded by persons who thought they had a field day to exploit the Fulani herdsmen.
Some of the people who spoke to DAILY GUIDE blamed the situation on their own kinsmen who according to them, are very new in the area and therefore had very little knowledge of what is expected of them.
They disclosed that about 70% of the cows being reared in the area are owned by residents and other senior members of government and politicians.
Security agents have said that the activities of the Fulanis who operate mostly in the Ashanti Akim Agogo areas in the Ashanti Region and the Kwahu Afram Plains corridor in the Eastern Region, are posing security concerns when attacks by nomadic herdsmen on farmers heightened in recent years.
Last week for instance, some Fulani herdsmen allegedly opened fire on police/military patrol team in the Agogo area, leaving some soldiers heavily injured.
As a result, the military has deployed helicopters to patrol the areas where farms continue to be destroyed by cattle believed to be owned by Fulanis.
By Solomon Ofori