‘My boys will crush you’ – Chereponi Chief warns protesters

The chief of Chereponi in the Northern region, Maliba Jamehja Kofi, has warned to unleash his “boys to crush” members of a group planning to stage a protest on Saturday against his decision to refuse the inclusion of the area to the proposed North East region.

The chief’s warning was contained in a letter he addressed to the district police commander cautioning him not to permit the said demonstration by the group.

The group whose membership is not known by many people in the district, has been intensifying campaigns in favor of the addition of Chereponi to the proposed new region.

The group has argued the inclusion of the area to the new region would accelerate development and asked the ministry of regional reorganization and development to ignore the chief and the Dagbon Traditional Council.

The chief has stated loudly that he would not allow his territory to be moved from the Northern region to a new Mamprusi dominated North East region.

As part of the chief’s protest against the decision of the regional reorganization ministry to remove his territory from the Northern Region, he attempted to stop Electoral Commission staff from carrying out a limited registration exercise in the area which ended almost a month ago.

Government officials in the district later deployed security forces and the exercise was carried out.

And as the EC begun another nationwide exercise today, renewed tensions in the area are building up to dangerous levels.

The group is set to embark on the street action, anticipated to be massive, to either force the chief to rescind his decision or plead with the minister of regional reorganization and development to ignore the chief and Dagbon Traditional Council and move ahead with the plans to add Chereponi to North East.

But the chief has warned the security agencies to stop the intended protest before he would be forced to do so himself. The secretary for the chief, Baba Yankah has confirmed the chief’s request to the police to Starr News and repeated that the chief would not allow any protest against his decision.

“Last week Saturday they were all invited, those youth who claim to be…arrogantly calling for North East Region, they were all invited here, and chief told them he doesn’t want to have any loggerheads with anybody in town; he is the paramount chief and he is the overlord of the area, he knows why he said he won’t join the North East region and they cannot also sit down and see any benefit  that is  under the North East region and think that they can control him to send him there by force, so he is telling them to desist from it or else they would not be in town and be free with him. He has assured them that he would never and ever think of going to Nalerigu to be part of their region.”

“And after that we thought it has ended there, just yesterday in the evening we heard they had held a meeting and they have written letters to the Police that they want to have a peace walk – and chief told them he doesn’t want to see anybody on the street or else he will send his boys to crush them and they will beat them and they will never forget,” the secretary said.

The Secretary claims the Chereponi palace is aware that the group is being sponsored by external agents who are forcing government to cause another irreparable damage in Northern Ghana.

“He has told the police they should not permit it and he would not allow it to take place in the town, that’s all that he has told them. He is for the town, and he would not allow any such thing to happen. If they are saying peace demonstration, what peace? What is wrong with Chereponi and they want to go on the peace demonstration?”

This is the latest of the escalations over the proposed partitioning of the Northern Region that continue to strain relationships between Dagbon Traditional Council and the Naa-yiri.

Last week, the Dagbon Traditional Council rejected a request from the overlord of the Mamprugu Traditional Area to allow Chereponi to be part of the proposed North East Region.

The council mentioned cultural, historical and geographical implications as reason for the rejection and blasted government for using the security agency intimate the chief of Chereponi.

Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Eliasu Tanko