Concern over upsurge in chieftaincy related violence

Tamale, April 8, GNA - The Ghana Network for Peace Building (GHANEP), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) engaged in monitoring and resolving conflicts, has expressed concern over the upsurge in chieftaincy related violence and called on the government to increase the manpower and logistic capacity of the security services to effectively maintain law and order in the country.

GHANEP said in the last quarter of March, its early warning Centre had identified an upsurge in chieftaincy related violence across the country which posed a major threat to national security.

It said statistics indicated that there were about nine recurrent violent actions in Bawku in the Upper East region, 13 cases and six cases in Tamale and Yendi respectively, with four cases recorded in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo District all in the Northern Region.

Mr. Justin Bayor, National Network Coordinator of GHANEP, disclosed this at a security briefing on the "upsurge of chieftaincy related violence, a threat to national security", in Tamale on Wednesday. He said similar incidents had taken place in Gushiegu, Tuobodom and in the Western, Central and Greater Accra regions. Mr Bayor expressed regret that over the years chieftaincy related conflicts had transformed into worse forms of violence and that resistance to the choice of a chief in some instances had resulted to youth hooliganism and the barbaric murder of such chiefs.

"GHANEP and its stakeholders cannot hesitate but ask what has happened to our traditional customs, respect for the elderly and authority. We are constrained to say that chieftaincy related violence that we are witnessing today is largely being perpetrated by the youth", Mr. Bayor said. He said it was equally worrying to note that the phenomenon of youth violence was not peculiar to chieftaincy disputes alone but was also gradually rearing its ugly head in the body politic of the country. Mr. Bayor said GHANEP had come to the conclusion that there was a serious social and moral breakdown facing the country that was closely related to the upsurge in youth violence.

He spoke about the activities of Fulani herdsmen and said they remained a prominent security threat as their cattle destroy people's farms and they also raped married women and young girls in the bush. Mr Bayor said Fulani herdsmen were engaged in armed robbery and the training of the youth in armed robbery.

He said it was unfortunate that the violence was being compounded by the inability of the security services to respond adequately and timely to situations of violence across the country and thus becoming a security threat.

It also appealed to the youth to eschew violence and not allow themselves to be used by others to achieve selfish interests. 08 April 10