Nkuv farmers arrested over farmer/grazier conflict

From Peter Adi Fonte in Kumbo 
 

Several Nkuv farmers have been arrested and detained at the Kumbo Gendarmerie brigade following a farmer/grazier conflict that erupted in Nkuv on October, 20.

The farmers are alleged to have embarked on the burning of huts belonging to graziers, wounding cows and roasting some calves before eating it while herdsmen on their part  allowed their cows to enter into the farms belonging to the said farmers.

After the incident, the Ardo of Nkuv, Ardorate Ardo Salifu Majaille and other graziers ran to the divisional officer of Kumbo and reported the matter.

The Shufai of Nkuv also went to the divisional officer for Kumbo the same day but was detained at the Kumbo gendarmerie brigade.

The famer/grazier commission with the divisional officer of Kumbo as the chairman and accompanied by the forces of law and order visited the scene on October, 21 to assess the damage caused to crops, the huts burnt down and the cows either wounded or killed and took pictures of the scene to lay ground work for legal action.

The number of huts burnt down or cows wounded and killed are yet to be made known. As this reporter visited the Kumbo Gendarmerie brigade on October 23 to get facts of the conflict from the Kumbo brigade commander but could not meet him despite waiting for over 1 hour.

While at the Gendarmerie brigade that afternoon, farmers who trekked all the way from Nkuv to Kumbo to secure the release of their colleagues were chased away by armed Gendarmes and elements of Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR.

The farmers are bearing grudges against the graziers that they have not been compensated for the last destruction caused on their maize farms. More to this, the farmers claim that the evaluation of their destroyed crops was carried out and some farmers have been paid while others are yet to be compensated.

It is against this backdrop of  non-compensation paid that the destruction of crops including beans and other perennial crops on of October 20 caused the tempers of the farmers to flare up for them to go on rampage.

The conflict between the farmers and the graziers keeps on coming up every year and the best way to resolve it, observers say, is for a demarcation to be made between grazing land and farm land.

Some quarters are of the opinion that peaceful settlement of the conflict between the farmers and graziers is better than court settlement that would not give the problem a long lasting solution.