120 security personnel not enough to curtail Fulani menace - MP

The Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa South Constituency in the Eastern Region, Kofi Okyere-Agyekum says the 120 security personnel deployed to Kwahu and its environs to control the activities of Fulani herdsmen are woefully inadequate.

According to him, the number is only good for just one of the troubled areas looking at the enormity of the problem with the nomadic herdsmen.

The Eastern Regional Security Council on Monday announced the deployment of the 120 personnel from the various security agencies to counter the negative activities of Fulani herdsmen in areas such as Kwahu Afram Plain North and South, Fanteakwa, Lower Manya and Kwahu East District.

The Eastern Regional Police Commander, DCOP Angwubutoge Awuni has asked security forces to remain vigilant in their operation codenamed “Operation Cowleg”. He has also directed them shoot to kill any cow instructed by the herdsmen to attack them.

But speaking on Onua FM’s Yensempa hosted by Kwame Karikari on Wednesday, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP expressed misgiving about the success of the security operations in the area.

“These security personnel are going to lodge in hotels and cause financial loss to the state because they will not be effective due to the inadequate number”.

He explained that “the best option now is for the citizens to defend themselves because fair protection is legitimate”.

Mr. Okyere-Agyekum insisted that “it is not wrong for the people of Kwahu and its environs to protect themselves with guns, machetes and other weapons against the Fulani herdsmen in the area because the government is not being serious about the issue”.