Nkonya, Alavanyo conflict claims one more life

The protracted land dispute between the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo in the Volta Region recorded yet another casualty last Thursday when a man was reportedly shot and killed at Nkonya-Tayi.

The man, who had been identified as Innocent Ohene, 35, was returning from the farm with his wife when unidentified persons opened fire on them.

Eyewitnesses said Ohene was shot in the neck but managed to crawl to the town where security officers conveyed him to the hospital.

The Public Relations Officer of the Volta Regional Police Command, Chief Inspector Joy Afagbedzi, stated that the incident happened around 12:30 p.m.

He added that Ohene was pronounced dead on arrival at the Margaret Marquart Hospital at Kpando, and his body had been deposited at the morgue of the same hospital.

Just recently, another victim, Korku Teyi, was shot in the chest in his home at Alavanyo-Kpeme but died on reaching the Margaret Marquart Hospital at Kpando. This incident led to the imposition of a dawn-to-dusk curfew on the two communities, Alvanyo-Kpeme and Nkonya Tayi.

The paramount chiefs of the two traditional areas, also in a joint statement after a stakeholders’ meeting initiated by the West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP) last month, called for calm and cooperation to bring a lasting solution to the 90-year land dispute.

Prior to that, two persons from Nkonya-Tayi were killed, with one of them decapitated. They were Anthony Akoto, 52, and Michael Sarpong, 48, who was beheaded.

On December 29, last year, security was beefed up in the area following two separate shooting incidents in which one person from Alavanyo was killed.

The Volta Regional Police PRO, Chief Inspector Joy Afadgedzi, said investigations had been initiated with regard to the latest incident and that there was no cause for alarm.

He called for cooperation from all stakeholders and assured the public that all investigations started would be taken to their logical conclusion.

Meanwhile residents of the two communities, Nkonya-Tayi and Alavanyo Kpeme, have told DAILY GUIDE in separate interviews that the security personnel should refocus their patrols from the streets of the towns to the bushes and forests in the area.

According to them, “the problem is in the bush where people hide to commit crime.”