Dagbon Gates Can't Stop Us - AG

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo has said that he will go ahead to implement white paper on the report of the Wuaku Commission on the Yendi crisis.

He said although government had taken into consideration the concerns raised by the Andani and Abudu gates in the crises, it would not shirk its responsibility of ensuring that there was absolute peace and tranquillity in the Dagbon area.

Speaking in an interview with ‘The Evening News’ in Accra on Friday, Nana Addo said the Wuaku Commission was not set up to please any of the factions in the crisis, but to fully establish the facts.

He said the fact that some members of the two gates had raised concerns about the government would not be distracted by the concerns of the two gates but would go ahead to implement the recommendations.

According to him, concerns and disagreements were normal in every human dialogue and therefore government had taken them seriously. Apart from Jahinfo and Yidana Sugri whose prosecution the white paper recommended, he said most of the issues in the report were for further investigations.

Currently, he said, his outfit was waiting for the dockets from the police for committal proceedings to begin on the murder charges levelled against Jahnifo and Sugri. It is recalled that the government issued a while paper on the Wuaku Commission Report, which was presented by Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December 2002.

The white paper said 30 people had been implicated in the disturbances in Yendi that led to the murder of the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, and many others in March, last year.

It said that they were to be arrested and prosecuted for various offences, including murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and arson.

The while paper said: Yidana Sugri and Iddrisu Jahinfo are to be prosecuted for murder, Iddrisu Iddi, also known as Mbadugu or Ex-Zalankola-Na, Mahamadu Abdulai, also known as Samansama and Shani Moro are to be prosecuted for conspiracy to murder, while Sulemena Baba also known as Baba Kroga, Abdulai Karaim, also known as Cheke, Alhassan Alhassan also known as Baku and Kwame Alhassan alias Achiri are to be prosecuted for attempted murder.

The government’s while paper stated further that the commission however exonerated some high ranking public officials from any complicity in the disturbances and the murder of the Ya-Na.

They are Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, former Minister of the Interior of the Interior and MP for Yendi, Lt. Gen. (Rtd) Joshua Hamidu, former National Security Advisor, Major Sulemana Abubakar (rtd), of the National Security outfit.