The Bole Tradational Council under the auspices of the Paramount Chief, Bolewura Sarfo Kutuge Feso (I) in collaboration with the District Police Command has organised a stakeholders consultative dialogue with Chiefs of the Bole Traditional Area and Fulani community heads and leading herdsmen to discuss issues of security and other related matters, a statement issued by the Secretary to Bolewura stated.
According to the statement, the dialogue was attended by all the Chiefs of the Traditional Area and two Fulanis from each community within the Bole Paramountcy.
The dialogue examined factors responsible for the increase in crime of Fulani herdsmen who are from the Sahel part of West Africa and their increasing settlement in littoral communities in Bole tradational area.
The dialogue investigated the factors that attract Fulani herdsmen to the Bole tradational Area and the factors that are responsible for the conflictual relationship between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the traditional area as well as examine how much of the crime in the Traditional Area can be traced to the Fulani herdsmen, Mr Haruna Obey added.
Information was obtained using one-on-one interaction with the leadership of the Fulanis and the Chiefs. Facts, beliefs, comments, and opinions were obtained at the dialogue. It was revealed that the ECOWAS Free Movement Policy, pull and push factors, which includes climatic conditions, greener pastures, and security among others is responsible for the migration of Fulani herdsmen to littoral Gonja Communities of Bole Traditional area.
The Fulani herdsmen are attracted to the Bole tradational area due to constant annual grass growth, availability of water, vast field of land, hospitality of the people, social and safety reasons and because the traditional area supported growth of cattle.
The dialogue also disclosed that legal lapses, lack of trust, media hype of slightest situation, destruction of property and exploitation accounts for the contributing causes of conflict between herdsmen and the indigenous farmers.
It was found out that most crimes such as rape, murder, destruction of crops, robbery and other crimes were associated with the presence of Fulani herdsmen with only a small fraction attributed to the indigenes, the statement revealed.
The dialogue recommends that fodder farming should be encouraged in Traditional area and a ceiling put on the number of herds that can be permitted into Bole tradational area, he said in the statement.
The statement further recommends that inter-ministerial committees and sub-committee are established to regulate nomadic activities while efforts should be made to disarm Fulani herdsmen to curb crime.
Source: yagbonradioonline
