Security council flexes muscles as new Yaa-Naa beckons

The Northern Regional Security Council has staged a rare public display of its military and police might to show its combat readiness as an ongoing efforts by government to end the decades old Dagbon chieftaincy crisis sparked widespread renewed tensions in many part of the region.

The exercise, OPERATION SHOW OF FORCE, is a physiological warfare tactics by the Regional Security Council designed primarily to cause indecision and breakdown morale of elements planning to use the upcoming funeral ceremonies as a smokescreen to threaten peace and order in the region.

It was also to highlight a potent reminder that the regional security bloc was ready to neutralize any security threat anywhere before, during and after the arrangements for the funeral ceremonies of the late Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II and Naa Mahamadu Abdulai.

The flamboyant display followed a National Security weapons search operation yesterday at Karaga that ended up with over 20 suspects arrested in dozens of fulani dominated communities.

Various types of weaponry and over 200 strong joint troops took part on the display at the Tamale Jubilee, where the chairman of the security council, Salifu Saeed, addressed the gathering.

The security forces with their advanced arsenals were later paraded through the streets of Tamale and further to Savelugu and Tolon – the two nearby powerhouses of the Abudus and Andanis – as a sign of their ruthless intent to enforce the decision by the Eminent Kings mediating the Dagbon crisis.

In a brief speech, the Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed thanked all shareholders, including traditional, religious leaders and youth groups, for their maximum cooperations towards the security council so far and pleaded for more compromises.

He, however, sounded warning that any actions by individual(s) that cross the redlines and have the potential to hurt the fragile stability of the region will be met with grievous responses far more than they would envisaged.

“We also want to tell the bad ones, people who want to hide under the cover of darkness or make unusual movement and groupings, to plan bad things, the security are ready for them and when they cross the line, they would deal with them decisively”, Salifu (You Can Be Sure) cautioned.

“No individual or group of individuals will take the laws into his or her own hands. The security is ready and all measures, forces would be marshalled to deal with whoever want to thwart the effective and smooth implementation of the roadmap that would lead to total peace in Dagbon”, he continued.

The Northern Region has been left in a state of uncertainty for weeks now following the finalization of a roadmap document that would restore absolute peace in the Dagbon Traditional Area.

The nearly 16yr old roadmap to peace negotiations started in 2002 after the conflict broke out in Yendi between the chieftaincy factions, Abudu and Andani and was under the auspices of Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II.

The committee on Friday, Nov.16, gave it final verdict, agreeing that, both funerals of the Abudus Naa Mahamadu Abdulai and Andanis Naa Yakubu Andani II be performed at the old Gbewaa Palace in Yendi.

Some top members of the Andani Family have rejected the decision of the committee to allow access to the Gbewaa Palace for the Abudu royal family to perform the funeral rites and threatened a resistance, after accusing the NPP government of bias towards the Andani Family.