Calm has returned to the Sabari and Jankuyili communities along river Oti in the Zabzugu district in the northern region, after farmers and herdsmen clashed.
One person was injured during the clashes, while two cows were killed. The misunderstanding ensued between the farmers and the herdsmen on Wednesday.
The District Security Council (DISEC) has been mediating since the incident occurred to find an amicable solution to the standoff.
The District Chief Executive for Zabzugu, Mr. Iddisah Ahmed popularly called Adakwa, who is also the chairman of DISEC, told Zaa News that both the leadership of the herdsmen and the farmers have agreed to live in harmony, after a meeting convened by the assembly.
Narrating the incident, the Zabzugu DCE said a herdsman brought his cattle to a farm and the cattle startled destroying the yam mounds leading to a confrontation.
As a result of the confrontation the DCE said, the farmer from Jagirido sustained cutlass wounds on the forehead.
According to the DCE, the farmer who was a Konkomba went and informed his colleagues which resulted in reprisal attacks and the huts or homes of the Fulanis were set ablaze.
The Konkombas thought one of them could lose their life. The attack was not killing human beings but burning of their homes as reported in the media, Mr Ahmed explained further.
He discounted media reports that about 50 cattle were killed, explaining that the DISEC’s search in the bush only found two cows.
Throughout Wednesday, the DISEC were in the bush and we only saw two carcasses and nothing else, Mr Ahmed.
“We never heard gun shots throughout our search in the bush, so it is not true there were gun shots,” the DCE said. The situation he said was relatively calm while the police was investigating.
The injured farmer, according to the DCE, has been treated and discharged from the Zabzugu district hospital and has officially lodged a complaint with the police.
The farmers and the herdsmen the DCE added, pledged to ensure peace in the area. The DISEC chairman explained that his team visited a number of farming communities, which were not affected just to get an accurate number of the herdsmens houses that were torched.
Military and police patrol in Zabzugu
Following the incident, armed police and the military have been dispatched to the area to forestall reprisals attacks, northern regional police command has said.
The patrol team, according to the police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Yussif Tanko accosted two men suspected to have orchestrated the burning of forty Fulani huts and alleged killing of their cows in the community. The men reportedly were arrested after interrogation.
Three locally manufactured single barrels guns, quantity of smoked cow, goat, and guinean fowls were retrieved from one of the men’s home. The two suspects were taken to the police station together with the exhibits to assist investigations.
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