Ashanti Peace Council takes steps to defuse tension

The Ashanti Regional Peace Council has taken steps to defuse rising tension at Kumawu and Pakyi Number Two due to chieftaincy disputes.

The other hotspot is Agogo, where the destructive activities of Fulani herdsmen are bringing them into direct confrontation with the local farmers.

Professor S.O. Asiama, Chairman of the Council, in a statement issued in Kumasi, said members are engaging the parties involved and are ready to share their findings and experiences with the appropriate authorities.

It said peace is indivisible and the key to development and therefore appealed to everybody, particularly those in leadership to make the maintenance of calm their priority.

The Council appealed to the youth in Kumawu and Pakyi not to allow themselves to be manipulated by anybody to cause confusion.

The statement urged factions to the Kumawu and Pakyi chieftaincy disputes to exercise restraint and to respect laid down traditional and customary procedures and processes in resolving the stalemate.

Turning to the standoff between the alien herdsmen and the local farmers at Agogo it said there are challenges the parties involved are going through.

The Council, however, expressed the view that building sustainable peace could not be achieved forcefully but through dialogue, negotiation, mediation and understanding of the values of diversity, trust, tolerance, confidence building and reconciliation.

It called on the security agencies to also ensure “considerable restraint” as they move to drive away the herdsmen and their cattle.

It said they should “respect the rights of the contending parties and to help in consensus building so that the operation would carry the parties along and make them partakers of the decisions and actions that would be taken”.