N/R: Salifu Saeed, security council visit troubled Nakpanduri

The Northern regional minister  Salifu Saeed on Thursday  led Regional Security Council members to troubled Sayeegu and Sambiluk villages in Bunkprugu/Yunyoo district where renewed land dispute has claimed four lives, including a chief and his potential heir.

The entourage traveled by helicopter to the ravaged communities and met with chiefs and elders in a routine attempts to awaken a collapsed peacetalks with the implacable factions.

A protracted land dispute between the Boukteeb and Tanmung Bimoaba clans in Nakpanduri sparked on Sunday April 30, 2017 led to the killing of the chief of Sayeegu, Woobjing Kamoutan (termites cannot consume stone) and his two relatives.

The deceased were killed in ambush strike at a farmland by armed mob allegedly from the rival Sambiluq village whose member was also killed and other seriously injured in a gun battle that escalated.

The communal dispute according to Starr News sources,  was sparked by a sanction imposed on the Sambiluk Chief by the Sayeegu authorities to vacate the Sayeegu land and move to Sambiluk after accusing him of power sharing and attempts to seize control by war.

The Sambiluk Chief denied the charges and refused to leave the Sayeegu community where he rules from resulting in the deadly attacks.

In April last year, a police officer Constable Frederick Dadzie was shot and over 70 houses burnt when violence broke out between the neighbours.

The deceased was rescued by security forces and in a show of force after several collapsed peace agreement.

The situation prompted an emergency visit by the Council to renegotiate back the feuding families to the discussion table but the mission stymied double times on Tuesday and Wednesday for yet unclear reason.

However a source closed to the Security Council attributed the failed missioto bad weather and the mass exodus of residents after the violence.

The source explained that the team was tracking the people who had fled the area to return before meeting for the engagement.

Speaking to mourning Sayeegu elders who lost a chief and other two royals,  the Northern regional police commander,  ACP Patrick Adusei Sarpong appealed for cooperation by assisting security forces with information that could led to arrest of suspects of the deadly clashes.

He gave ‘shaky’ assurance of maximum protection and advised the people who appeared spiteful against reprisal strikes.

ACP Adusei explained further the challenge of effecting arrest saying the attackers escaped from the villages following the atrocities.

The Northern Regional Minister Salifu Saed, who led the team to the area, said government was committed to finding lasting solutions to all chieftaincy and land disputes in the country.

He therefore appealed for calm and the cooperation of the people to enable government achieve its objectives.

Salifu Saeed did not say what his direct intervention is for the time being to quell the intermittent clashes unlike his predecessor, a failed parliamentary hopeful Hon. Abubakari Abdullah who last year threatened to throw into jail the two rival Chiefs should any clashes erupted.

The deputy regional minister also Member of Parliament for the area,  Solomon Boar did not also spark during the visit