Herdsmen’s Nonsense, An MP’s Frustration

Fulani herdsmen firing at farmers whose farms their cattle destroy, and whose women they rape are as iniquitous as the landowners who respond with firearms and daggers.

A frustrated Hon. Kwadwo Baah Agyemang, MP for Asante Akyem North, was quoted as asking his people to deal with the recalcitrant herdsmen, whose nuisance was a matter of litigation at a High Court earlier.

It is interesting that even after the court ruling asking the security agencies to flush the herdsmen out of the area in question, the Hon. MP states that the status quo remains and the indigenes continue to be shot at and their women raped at will.

The frustration of the MP is understandable, even as we find it outlandish and too crude to be allowed in a civilized society such as ours. Unfortunately in civilized societies, court orders are carried out anyway and not trampled upon, as in the case of Asante Akyem where the herdsmen are having a field day with impunity.

The contradictory situational report from the area is worrying and prompts questions about who is being economical with the truth. While the Ashanti Regional Police Command claims that the herdsmen have long departed the place, the MP insists that they are still there and continue to wreak havoc.

This is the second time that we are commenting on this national security challenge and regret it that the impetus that the subject has received in the quit order granted by a High Court is being dampened to the advantage of the Fulani herdsmen.

Even without the seeming fatwa from the Hon. MP, the indigenes of the area under question when they are no more able to take the crap from the herdsmen would naturally turn to defending themselves, however crudely that may be, having, as it were, lost faith in the security agencies.

Perhaps this is not the time to determine the rightness or otherwise of the Hon. MP’s admonition to his distressed and frustrated people, but to rather ensure that the law is applied as demanded by the court.

The intervention of the court in such matters is to obviate the bloodshed or a general breach of order when people take the law into their own hands. This, however, remains a feeble order unable to fly confidence in the law wanes.

It is therefore imperative that whatever impediments have prevented the application of the law is removed forthwith and the herdsmen removed forcefully.

We are disappointed that the people of that district are seemingly being held hostage by nomads in the land of their birth. This is a national security threat and we are amazed that it is being overlooked. Not taking action now by enforcing the court order is not an acceptable option.

Source: Editorial/Daily Guide