Police have launched investigations into five Fulani-related killings within the last two weeks in the Afram Plains North constituency of the Eastern Region.

Also, police-military patrols have been intensified in the area following the murders.

According to the Police Public Affairs Officer in the region, ASP Yaw Nketia-Yeboah, there have been several reports by families about missing relatives that could vary the number of deaths, but the five disclosed are from different tribes.

“Some of the bodies retrieved from the bush are decomposing and we cannot determine the exact time of the murders, but we are still investigating and anybody with information should either volunteer to the patrol team or to police station to arrest the culprits,” he said.

He also cautioned residents in the area to “desist from taking the law into their own hands” and allow the law enforcers to do their work.

The deaths come in the wake of clashes between Kokomba farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the area after the alleged murder of one of the farmers some days earlier.

According to Moses Kpane, the secretary to the Kokomba chief, the latest clashes resulted after one farmer was lynched only for his body to be discovered several days later hidden miles away from his farm.

“My senior brother went to the farm and we had a call from him that he had been attacked by the Fulani people. My people quickly mobilised and went to his farm, but did not see anyone. They called his phone several times, but could not reach him so they mounted a search for him but could not find him and they came back to report to the elders. The following Sunday [19th June, 2016] around 11, they found his body. He had been killed and taken away several kilometres away from the farm,” he narrated.