A Security Expert at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre (KAIPC) Dr Kwesi Anning has said the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asante Akim North must be sacked if he is unable to explain why he failed to pick up intelligence ahead of the recent atrocities by Fulani herdsmen in Agogo.
According to him, the DCE who is the head of the District Security Council (DISEC) should have been on top of his brief to ensure that the place was safe at all times.
The nomads have been at loggerheads with the locals following the killing of over three people recently in the area. A herdsman was injured in a scuffle leaving seven cattle dead.
Last week one person was shot by Fulani herdsmen at Agogo as the nomads fled to Fanteakwa in the Eastern region for refuge. The recent clashes and new cases of death have triggered another national debate over the continuous stay of the Fulanis in the country.
The development has resulted in uneasy calm in Agogo.
The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) last week deployed more military men as reinforcement for the police to drive away Fulanis in Agogo.
A special joint taskforce of military and Police personnel has arrived in Agogo in the Asante Akim North Municipality of the Ashanti Region, ostensibly to drive out a section of Fulanis from the area.
But speaking on Joy FM’s news analysis show News File Saturday Dr Kwesi Anning stated that deploying soldiers to Agogo is a knee jerk reaction by the state which is bound to fail.
“If the DCE in Agogo failed to pick up intelligence that there was something brewing and ordinary people were arming themselves across the divide then he and others in the DISEC must be sacked.
“If you rush to the area and saturate the place with soldiers and policemen what are they going to do… and upon what intelligence are they acting now.”
Dr Anning insisted that authorities who are in charge of the security in Agogo and the Ashanti Region must pay dearly for their dereliction of duty.
“This penchant for letting people go scot free and lie to us and dismiss peoples’ criticism must not be accepted. Lives have been lost and somebody in officialdom must answer for it. The DISEC should answer and if that DCE cannot answer he must be sacked, we should go up there to the Ashanti region and the REGSEC and say why did you fail to pick the intelligence, whoever is responsible must be sacked as well and then we come all the way up to the top. Because in the last eighteen months (18) there have been way too much intelligence mishap in the country leading increasingly to disturbing security lapses.