Funeral rites of Bole chief suspended to avoid clash between rivals

The Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has suspended both the seven and twelve day funeral rites of the late Bole Chief, Bole-Wura Awuledase Pontompron II indefinitely.

This decision was made after a REGSEC meeting on Monday June 5, 2017.

This follows brewing tension between supporters of the two Chiefs of Mandari – Abdulai Issahaku Kant and Abubakari Abutu – who were both enskinned separately by the late Bole-Wura and the Overlord of Gonja Land Yagbon-Wura Tuntumba Bor-esa II respectively.

The bone of contention is who amongst the two has the right to perform the final funeral rites of the deceased. Per the customs of Gonja Land, whoever performs the funeral rites of the late Chief automatically succeeds him. Therefore before the Bole-Wura passes on, he has to enskin the Mandari Chief who will subsequently move to Bole as the substantive Bole-Wura and is obliged by tradition to perform the funeral rites of his predecessor then takes over the reign of the traditional area.

However, this tradition appears to suffer some setbacks.

Information gathered by 3news.com indicates that although the Overlord of Gonja Land was consulted by the late Bole-Wura on his choice of a Mandari Chief, the Yagbon-Wura kicked against the choice despite the fact that the power to enskin a successor to the Bole Skin solely behooves on the Bole-Wura.

A subsequent enskinment of Abukari Abutu by the Yagbon-Wura led to the confusion as to who has to sit on the Bole skin barely 48 hours after the demise of Bole-Wura Awuledase Pontompron II on May, 31 2017 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

When the Northern Regional Minister together with some government appointees visited the traditional area on Sunday, May 4 to commiserate with the traditional council, the issue of a successor topped the list of concerns tabled before the delegation.

The Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Regional Security Council foresaw a possible bloodbath should the funeral be performed by any of the contestants, called a meeting with his council members and resolved to place an indefinite suspension on all funeral rites until the matter of who performs the funeral rites is decided.

The issue is currently before the Judicial Committee of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs.

The Minister Mr. Salifu Saeed therefore urged both contestants to remain calm and appealed to them to caution their followers because the security council will not tolerate any situation that will result in conflict.

Meanwhile, the Bole District Police Crime Officer ASP Ebenezer Dartey said the security is prepared to deal with any potential threats in the area.

He noted that a military cum police team dispatched by REGSEC to forestall any conflict has taken over the streets of Bole.

“We have warned them that we will allow the laws to deal with anybody who is caught flouting the order by REGSEC .”