The police have arrested some six persons suspected to have killed two police officers at Drobonso in the Sekyere Afram Plains District of the Ashanti Region.
The two Police Officers were shot dead on January 11, 2018, when they were returning from night patrol duties in the town.
“They were ambushed. They went on patrol and on their way back to Kumawu, part of the road had been blocked so when they stopped then they fired at them,” Ashanti Regional Police Commander, COP Ken Yeboah told Citi News in an interview.
Speaking on the Point Blank segment on Eyewitness News on Thursday, Director-General of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, ACP David Eklu, said they are convinced that the six suspects they’ve arrested were those who killed the two officers at Drobonso.
Director-General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, ACP David Eklu
“Six people have been arrested, and we have strong evidence that they were the ones who were connected with the killing of two of our officers –an inspector and a constable, and as I speak, they are before the law court,” he added.
War on herdsmen in Agogo and Sekyere Afram Plains
Ghana’s security chiefs have waged war on herdsmen at Agogo in the Asante Akim North District, and in the Sekyere Afram Plains District following complaints largely from Agogo, that their farms are being destroyed by cattle, and they are also being attacked by the herdsmen.
In view of this, a joint military and police task-force dubbed Operation Cowleg, was deployed to the two towns to flush out the herdsmen from those areas.
The task-force recently recorded some setbacks after four of their members were shot and injured by unknown assailants in Agogo.
In response, additional 200 personnel were dispatched to augment the work of Operation Cowleg.
ACP Eklu noted that, the work of the task-force is progressing steadily “and the feedback we are getting is that, most of the herdsmen have relocated to another area.”
“This is a task-force and a task-force has a specific assignment. When issues happen, you send officers there to stabilize the situation, and at least give some confidence to the public to allow other agencies to work towards a permanent solution, and that is what we are doing at Agogo. We hope that the task that the officers have been assigned to do will pave way for a more comprehensive solution to the problem in Agogo,” he added.
Background
There was some backlash in Agogo towards the end of 2017, when cattle owners accused the District Security Council (DISEC) in the area, of failing to give them prior notice before embarking on an operation to drive away their cattle from the town.
The owners claimed that the joint security task-force carrying out the operation has deliberately killed over a hundred cattle, and have sold out some to indigenes of the area.
Indigenes of Agogo and its environs for the past years have accused herdsmen of allowing their cattle to graze and destroy farmlands which are their only source of livelihood.
Some indigenes and herdsmen have died in a number of eruptions of violence related to the tensions.
As a result, a team comprising police and military officers were deployed to the town to evict the herdsmen.
We’ll respond to attacks by Agogo herdsmen
The Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant Gen. O. B Akwa, had earlier assured the people of Agogo that the task-force will push through their mandate until the issue is resolved.
According to him, they have the backing of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces to ensure that the objectives for the formation of the task-force are achieved.
“We shall be unrelenting in this assignment until we bring it to a closure,” he said.
Over 20,000 cattle ‘flushed out’ of Agogo
The Municipal Chief Executive of Asante Akyem North in the Ashanti Region, Francis Oti Boateng, has said almost half of the over 45,000 cattle that invaded Agogo and its surrounding areas have been taken out of the area.
He attributed the success to the diligence of government’s task-force known as Operation Cowleg.
Speaking to Citi News on the work of the task-force, Francis Oti Boateng said they have recorded some progress in the last few weeks.
“It’s a huge progress that we are making, but until we see no cattle on our land, I cannot say that we’ve won the fight. But I can tell that we estimated over 45,000 cattle on our land, and I can tell that at the moment almost half of them are gone, and we are making a lot of progress at the moment,” the DCE added.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin
