‘Alavanyo-Nkonya conflict goes beyond land dispute’

Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afote Agbo, has admitted that the recurring unrest between the Alavanyo and Nkonya communities goes beyond a land dispute.

The minister said he will soon act on the information by the Nkonya Chief that the conflict in the area is caused by illegal lumbering activities in the Nkonya community.

Chief of Nkonya, Nana Ampem Darkoh III, on Thursday appealed to government to investigate and bring to book individuals who are responsible for illegal felling of trees and destruction of resources in their forest reserve, since that was the cause of the conflicts.

He said tagging the cause of the recurrent conflict between his people and the Alavanyo community merely as a 'land dispute' is erroneous.

According to him, it is when the Nkonya people meet the Alavanyo people who are illegally lumbering timber and other resources from the Nkonya forest reserve that the conflict ensued.

"No land problem is happening. They [Alavanyo people] have been stealing timber there [Nkonya] and when the two groups go and meet there and they fight, then it...involves all of us", he said.

The regional minister said government will soon arrest people who illegally fell trees in the Alavanyo and Nkonya communities for peace to prevail there.

He said: "it will be difficult for officials for the Assembly to be detailed to the forest to look for people who are felling trees illegally because this is an area where everybody knows how to shoot."

He adds that the best way to arrest illegal lumberers is to identify their exit points from the forest so that they can be picked up while coming out.