The Asante Akyem North District Security Council is to petition the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC)
to, as a matter of urgency, provide the necessary support to the DISEC to effectively tackle what it considers as a new phenomenon of crime wave emerging in the Afram Plains portion of the district.
The DISEC suspects that some of the aggrieved nomadic herdsmen who have been driven out of the district in recent security operations are embarking on a suspected reprisal attack on the residents by killing and maiming them.
The chairman of the DISEC, Paul Averu, who is also the District Chief Executive, made this known to newsmen after an emergency meeting with the REGSEC.
He said the two recent murder cases recorded at Abrewanko, one of the communities in the plains, have not been linked to activities of cattle.
On the other hand, the unidentified assailants are believed to be Fulani herdsmen who, at separate locations, demanded money from their victims before shooting the two persons to death following their inability to provide the money.
Mr Averu said the assailants are being vigorously pursued by the security operatives to face justice.
The DCE disclosed that a final operation to flush out the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle was beginning on March 1, and indicated that the Fulani herdsmen and the remaining cattle within the Asante Akyem North District would have been successfully flushed out of the area.
According to Mr Averu, the DISEC noted also that the joint Police/Military Taskforce deployed to the area about three weeks ago has been able to evacuate about 90 per cent of all the herdsmen and their cattle from the district.
He indicated that in spite of the successes being chalked, the entire security taskforce will continue to be on the ground until further notice, adding that the DISEC has adopted a strategy that will ensure that neither the evacuated cattle nor new ones return to the district.
This, he said, is the only way to bring lasting peace to enable the residents to go about their lawful activities.
Mr Averu noted that the operation of the security operatives have been boosted by the declaration and co-operation of the Agogo Traditional Council in efforts at flushing out the herdsmen and their cattle from the area.
The DCE asked for the total compliance and co-operation of the herdsmen to make the evacuation exercise a peaceful one.
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