3 Arrested over Yeji killings

The Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command is currently holding three men in custody for their alleged involvement in the shooting and killing of two persons recently at Kranya-Akura, near Yeji in the Pru District of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Munkaila Seidu, 30; Oluman Limpo, 20 and Wahab Dramani, 40 – all Gonjas from Tarakpa, a farming community in the East Gonja District of the Northern Region – are being held for murder.

The three were among a group from Tarakpa who allegedly ambushed the Kranya-Akura community under the cover of darkness on Wednesday, October 22, 2014, at about 4:30 am and purportedly attacked the Nchumuru people, killing two persons and burning ten houses in the process.

Two others from Kranya-Akura also sustained gunshot wounds. The deceased were identified as Kwaku Owusu, 50 and Solomon Kwadwo Manu, 51.

Briefing DAILY GUIDE on the arrests, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Christopher Tawiah, said investigations were still underway to get all those involved in the tribal conflict arrested.

He said the situation was under control as a number of police and military officers are in the village to maintain law and order.

It will be recalled that on the above-mentioned day, a group of Gonjas from the Tarakpa community crossed the Bunjari River – which had been used by the Lands Commission during the Nkrumah regime as a regional boundary between the Northern and the Brong-Ahafo Regions – to harvest timber on a disputed land at Kranya-Akura, inhabited by the Nchumurus.

Reports were that the Nchumurus resisted the Gonjas and the development resulted in a scuffle between the two ethnic groups, resulting in two persons getting injured.

The Gonjas retreated and later returned to Kranya-Akura at dawn the following day to launch another attack on the Nchumurus, burning 10 houses in the village and killing two persons in the process.

The timely intervention of the police averted what would have been a bloody tribal clash between the two groups.