WANEP appeals to House of Chiefs to halt chieftaincy-related conflicts

The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Ghana) has called on the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs to help in curbing the increasing chieftaincy related violent cases in some parts of the country.

It said within the first quarter of the year, its early warning system recorded a total of 66 cases out of which four were directly related to chieftaincy which had the potential of destabilizing the peace and security of the nation especially as the nation moves towards the general election in December.

WANEP-Ghana also called on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Chieftaincy and the Judiciary, to review and resolved all chieftaincy cases in the country for peace to prevail since unresolved cases pose a threat to national peace and security.

The 2012 first Quarter National Human Security Alert report of WANEP-Ghana, signed by its National Network Coordinator Mr. Justin Bayor was made available to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Thursday.

Accoding to the report, three proximate issues of concern in the January to March included politically related tensions, chieftaincy incidents and armed robbery and circulation of arms; and urged the security to be more cautious on these areas.

The WANEP-Ghana, expressed worry about the sources of the arms circulating in the country and whether a large and sophisticated quantity remains within the country adding that, “In the event of any conflict, an easy tool for expressing the difference will be arms and ammunitions…the Police must do swoops to retrieve hidden weapons”.

It urged the Government to encourage the security agencies to conduct periodic swoops in all areas with chieftaincy and political tensions to retrieve any stockpile of arms and ammunitions within factions, adding that such efforts should also be directed at criminal hideouts.

“We renew our call on Government, International Institutions and Civil Society groups to increase the communications, transport and ammunition detection capacities of the security agencies…the Police should also be provided with bulletproof uniforms and equipment to enable them respond effectively with limited casualties”, the statement added.

The statement also described the current power outages as causing security problems since criminals could easily operate during such periods and appealed to the Government to find lasting solutions to the power difficulties as well as the increasing labour unrest in the country.

It noted that there was the need for an effective collaboration between the Police, Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Immigration Services and the communities to increase border security patrols as well as identify the sources of arms in the country to reduce the movement of small arms and ammunitions.**