PNC Leader Raps Government Over Dagbon crisis

THE LEADER of the People's National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward N. Mahama, has stated that the riot that erupted at Yendi recently claiming the lives of some people and injuring many others was a result of the unsettled Dagbon crisis.

According to him, the government has failed to take a step to 'fast-track' all the perpetrators who, last year, plunged the area into a state of anarchy after the massacre of the overlord and 30 others in an ethnic clash.

He said the re-imposition of the state of emergency at Dagbon by the government is unfortunate, arguing that it would not solve the crisis. He contended that the government is just postponing the inevitable, instead of biting the bullet by putting those who committed the heinous crime before a fast track court to prove to the people in the conflict area that the government is bent on solving the crisis.

Speaking to Chronicle in an interview, Dr. Mahama said, "Locking up the people in the area for the rest of their lives does not mean we are solving the problem," stressing that the time had come for the government to revisit the suggestions of the PNC to ensure that peace prevails in Dagbon.

According to him the PNC had suggested that the government should separate the criminal issues from the traditional and customary aspects of the conflict.

He said the government should deal with the criminal aspects of the case by prosecuting the perpetrators while the traditional rulers especially, the Kuga-Na, the spiritual head of Dagbon, is given a push by the government to facilitate the resolution of these traditional and customary aspects of the matter.

In an appeal to the people of Dagbon, the PNC leader urged them to let reason prevail. Referring to those who lost their lives in the recent riot at Tamale, he called on the relatives to find solace in God.

He added that the people should continue to handle themselves in a manner as they have been doing by cooperating with the rest of the nation to ensure that peace prevails in spite of the curfew imposed on them.

Dr. Mahama denied the impression that the Tamale incident was a result of a clash between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), arguing that the main cause of those deaths and injuries was the inability of the government to quickly try the perpetrators of the assassination of the Ya-Na Andani II and others. Said he: "The remote cause was not the cleaning of the hospital or even the destruction at the butchers' place, but the unsettled problems in Yendi."

The leader however urged all the parties in Bimbilla, which is next door to Yendi, not to allow another crisis at Bimbilla.

According to him those who are meddling in chieftancy but have no traditional and customary roles to play there should stop to avoid another clash.

He asserted that the way the soldiers are being deployed to Tamale, raiding and parading themselves to the extent of subjecting the people into various forms of intimidation and interference with the traditional and customary rights, shows that the government is using a wrong method to settle the matter which could be done in a more civilized way.

"Those who are working everyday around the clock to make ends meet are now poor due to the imposition of the state of emergency; how much more those who are not working?" he asked, arguing that the state of emergency has worsened the poverty of the people in the affected areas.

According to him, "millions of questions are ringing in the minds of Dagombas both in Tamale and elsewhere in Dagbon about what will happen if the state of emergency is not lifted by the year 2004. Would the people of those areas who have been denied involvement in district assemblies and social economic activities be disenfranchised or enfranchised to vote?" he quipped.