Odomase (B/R), June 17, GNA – Osabarima Kwabena Yeboah Ababio, the Kurontirehene (Deputy chief) of Odomase Number One Traditional Area, has appealed to the Bono Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to drive away Fulani herdsmen in the Tain Forest enclave in the Bono region.
He said the influx of the nomadic Fulani herdsmen and their cattle in the area was a serious security threat and asked the REGSEC to act swiftly before the unexpected would happen in the Municipality.
Osabarima Ababio made the appeal when Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister and other members of the REGSEC, paid a courtesy to Odomase Number One and Awuah-Domase Traditional Councils in the Sunyani West Municipality as part of her day’s working visit to the area.
The visit allowed the Minister the opportunity to interact with the people and identified their immediate development and pressing needs to address them.
Osabarima Ababio expressed the regret that since the herdsmen invaded the area, the traditional council had been receiving complaints from farmers, mostly women about the attacks on them by the herdsmen and cattle grazing on their farms.
He said the herdsmen, who had settled in the area with their cattle, also wielded offensive weapons and instruments, causing extensive destruction to people’s farms and properties.
Osabarima Ababio also expressed worry about the disturbing situation of the get-rich-quick syndrome, popularly known as ‘sakawa’ among some young men who had invaded the Odomase town, thereby introducing some unsuspected youth of the area into money rituals.
Describing the situation as worrying, the Kurontirehene said the Council had no other option than to report to the security operatives to investigate and question the source of wealth of “those young people who ride in flashy cars in the town.”
He also appealed to the Government to reconstruct the Adoe bridge, which had become a death trap in the area, saying it was always extremely difficult for women farmers and children as well as vehicles to cross the bridge in the rainy season.
At Awuah-Domase, Okatakyie Yaw Nti, the Awerempemhene of the area, expressed concern about drug abuse and alcoholism among the youth.
He said Indian hemp smoking and peddling were rife in the town and called on the Police to intensify day and night patrols to clamp down on the peddlers and dismantle Indian hemp “corners” in the town.
He said because unemployment was high in the area, some of the boys and girls were engaged in drugs, thereby contributing to rising cases of theft and burgling in the town.
In her response, Madam Owusu-Banahene said modern policing remained a shared and collective responsibility and appealed to the chiefs and queens to support the Police in crime combat by providing them with information about people with questionable characters in their neighbourhoods.
She asked the traditional authorities to always remain alert and security conscious, assuring that the REGSEC would work hard to control the crime wave not only in the Municipality but the region by extension.
GNA