Stray Bullet Kills JHS Pupil In Yendi

Family members of Yakubu Abass, the EP Junior High School (JHS) pupil who was killed last Friday in a chieftaincy brawl in Yendi, are demanding the immediate arrest of the contending chieftaincy gates.

The deceased, 16, was hit by a stray bullet during a gun battle between rival chieftaincy factions who were before the Kampakuya Naa Yakubu Andani for the enskinment of a substantive Lamashegu chief within the Tamale Metropolis.


Mohammed Osman, elder brother of the deceased who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, demanded justice for the death of his brother, noting that the arrest of the aspirants to the skin was one of the ways to unravel his death.


According to him, his kid brother was on his way to eat at Zohi, another suburb of the Yendi Municipality when he met his untimely death after being hit by a stray bullet.


He called on the police to thoroughly investigate circumstances surrounding the death of his brother, indicating that he was not in any way linked to the chieftaincy enskinment which ended his life.


“The family is not taking kindly to the death of Yakubu”, he remarked.


He issued a fortnight ultimatum to the security agencies to fish out his brother’s killers as the pain of his death was becoming unbearable for the family.

Yakubu Abass was last Friday killed by unknown assailants after he was hit in the head by a stray bullet, causing him to bleed profusely.


All attempts to save his life by relations, as he was rushed to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, proved futile as the injury he suffered was said severe.


The reason for the shootout is still unclear but DAILY GUIDE gathered that one faction was disenchanted following the Kampakuya Naas’s decision.


Reports suggest one Yakubu Ziblim, a former Gulpkegu Regent, was enskinned as a substantive Lamashegu Chief despite concerns that he was not from that lineage.


After the necessary enskinment processes, he was said to be on his way to Tamale, with an escort, when supporters of the other faction started pelting stones and firing shots at them.


Supporters of the embattled chief also started firing back, resulting in the untimely death of the infant who was not related to the issue.

He has since been buried in accordance with the Islamic custom.


Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has since dispatched reinforcement to Yendi to help diffuse the building tension following threats of reprisal attacks.


Northern Regional Minister, Moses Bukari Mabengba, cautioned chiefs in the region to be mindful of the consequences their enskinment brought to the people of the area, appealing to them to slow down on the way they were doing things.


According to him, REGSEC would formally make its statement on the matter this week, but urged the chiefs to follow due processes in order to curtail avoidable arsons in the region.