Skip to main content

My ethnicity not barrier to Chereponi peace - Defence minister defends

Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul

Defence minister Dominic Ntiwul has rejected suggestions his ethnicity is a hindrance in resolving the protracted Chereponi conflict in the North-East region.

The minister who is Konkomba said his successful mission to engage the Konkombas and Chokosis last Friday shows his ethnicity is not a barrier to peace.

“If the people see us as part of the problem, they would not listen to us,” the Defence minister explained on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Tuesday.

Chereponi is haemorrhaging vital service providers as teachers, health professionals and a host of government workers abandon the volatile area. 

The latest round of violence in the Konkomba-dominated district, where Chokosis remain the minority, marked the third of such incidents in the past five months. Two persons died. The toll of the fighting includes loss of properties, delayed development and humanitarian challenges.

Junior High School students are set to write a nationally administered Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from June 10 and have pleaded with the government to help them study in peace. 

The conflict is linked to a parcel of land reportedly two acres. But the land has ancestral significance and has become a matter of identity.

The Defence minister observed the factions have lost trust for each other hence an escalation of the conflict. The minister took leading personalities from both sides living in Accra and flew to the area for peace talks.

Touting progress, the 41-year old minister said there has not been a “single gunshot” since Friday.

“They have laid down their arms,” the Bimbilla MP and minister maintained and said the next step is to include religious leaders to help maintain peace.

The minister wants more focus on resolving the conflict and not his ethnicity which he insisted is not a sticky issue.

In 2002, the Northern regional minister, Prince Imoro Andani and Interior Minister Malik Alhassan Yakubu resigned after suspicions they had a hand in the Dagbon crisis in which the overlord, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II was brutally murdered. 

But Dominic Nitiwul has said it is unfair to declare people “guilty by association”. He said despite the volatile situation, he was able to address the people.

“It is a risk we are willing to take,” he said. “Luckily for all of us, it has had a positive impact,” the former teacher observed.

Security analyst Kwesi Aning has said the semblance of peace should not lull government into rest.

He explained the aggressors are using the time to bury the dead and re-arm. He urged government to get security chiefs to go and live in the area to understand the conflict.

Land ownership is a pawn for political representation in the region. Where land is owned, chieftaincy is created, where chieftaincy exists political representation becomes viable in institutions like the National House of Chiefs and influence in political parties is enhanced.

The tension among Konkombas and the settlers Chokosis can be traced into colonial times.


Source: Myjoyonline.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invest your profits back into farming - COCOBOD boss to Cocoa Farmers

Joseph Boahen Aidoo is Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has charged cocoa farmers to be business minded in operating their farms and to partake fully in the various programmes introduced by COCOBOD to ensure good farm yields and to increase profits. "Good farming practices, like pruning, the timely application of fertilizers and proper pests control are essential at all times," he said. Joseph Boahen Aidoo stated this while interacting with farmers in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, on the first day of his week-long tour of cocoa farms across the county. He was accompanied by the Deputy Chief Executive of Operations at COCOBOD, Dr Emmanuel Opoku, as well, as Directors and Research Scientists from COCOBOD. The tour is aimed at assessing the level of farmer participation in the various farm productivity improvement programmes implemented by COCOBOD; it is also...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stop running commentary on our investigations - A-G warns EOCO

Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, the Attorney-General has asked the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to open itself to the public but to avoid running commentary on its investigations. According to her speaking in public about their investigations could only frustrates their efforts as well as give out too much information to criminals to change their mode of operations. “Criminals are always waiting to cover their tracks and therefore coming out to speak constantly about a matter, makes it easier for them to cover up and therefore frustrating the outcome of the investigations,” she stressed. She advised that the statutory body should avoid following rumours and suspicions so as not to not embarrass themselves. Ms Akuffo said this at EOCO’s maiden national stakeholders’ forum in Accra aimed at interacting with stakeholders and share information on cases investigated, prosecutions and convictions obtained as well as recoveries and confiscations made. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Allowing Benito to Go Unopposed is Unconstitutional - Group

Benito Owusu Bio A group calling itself Concern Youth of Atwima Nwabiagya North are describing it as unconstitutional, attempts by the constituency executives to allow Member of Parliament for the constituency, Hon Benito Owusu Bio to go unopposed in the party’s approaching parliamentary primaries. According to the group, the constituency executives in a series of meetings with the polling station executives concluded that nobody wi ll be allowed to contest the sitting MP, a decision most of the polling station executives are not happy with. Starting from first week of April, the constituency executives will send an endorsement forms to all the polling station executives to sign as they only need 40% and above the MP. Concern youth of Awima Nwabiagya North believes this is totally against the party’s constitution and must be condemned. The major political parties in Ghana have been democratizing their candidate selection process, allowing candidates to be freely selec...
Post a Comment
Read more