ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Days after a farmer accused the police of not doing enough to assist with efforts to combat praedial larceny, police Superintendent Nuffield Burnette said lawmen have set in motion a plan to combat agricultural theft.

“I know the famers have been having the time of their lives as it relates to praedial larceny. We have gone ahead and put in place a strategy on paper to deal with that. This would involve the farmers themselves; we have not called them to a meeting yet but that is in the pipeline,” Burnette said in an interview yesterday.

“It is a difficult crime to police because it happens mostly at nights, away from civilisation mostly, but we have put something in place and pretty soon we will be calling the farmers to a town hall type of meeting so we can sensitise them as to what we have and to get their input.”

Farmer Walter Tonge had told OBSERVER Media that despite informing Commissioner of Police Vere Brown about persons who are involved in these acts, to date, nothing appears to have been done with the information. He said those accused continue to slaughter and sell meat when they own no animals.

“It’s a lot of running around (lawmen) give you that does not make a lot of sense,” Tonge said.

Meanwhile, Extension Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture Owalabi Elabanjo is urging residents to come forward with information that would help stop praedial larceny.

He said this is the only way the authorities can get a handle on the illegal activity.

(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)