TENSION IN BAWKU ...REGSEC calls for help from A-G's office (LEAD STORY, APRIL 8, 2010)

Story: Benjamin Glover, Bawku

Tension and confusion engulfed the Bawku municipality yesterday following sporadic shooting in the area a week after the alleged killing of innocent people in the internecine ethnic and chieftaincy conflict.
The shooting, which started about 11 a.m., lasted about 30 minutes and raised serious security concerns in the already tensed area.
As guns boomed from the Guinea Fowl Market near the Bawku Community Centre, market women, schoolchildren, government officials and other residents ran for cover.
So far, no arrests have been made and as of the time of filing this report, calm had returned to the municipality.
The shooting incident occurred at a time when a joint Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC) and Bawku Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) meeting was being held.
In the spate of about a week, three people have allegedly been shot dead, while others have been injured.
On Monday, March 29, 2010, one person was allegedly shot dead and two others were injured in Bawku. The shooting occurred around the Barclays Bank in Bawku about 8 p.m.
The deceased, identified as Sule Adinya, 41, a tea seller, was rushed to the Bawku Hospital but died shortly after, while one of the injured, identified as Nichima Adam, 30, a loading boy, is responding to treatment.
The third victim, Mohammed Abubakari, 30, who had a bullet fracture in the head, was discharged
The security agencies rounded up 13 people for screening. The Bawku Municipal Police Commander, DSP Godwin Cashman Blewushie, who confirmed the incident, said all the 13 people arrested in connection with the shooting incident were screened last Tuesday by the police.
On Thursday, Thursday April 1, 2010, a senior anaesthetist of the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Mr Samuel Akolgo Ayamba, and Akurigu Awini, 60, were pulled out of a vehicle and lynched at the Sankansi Lorry Station, near Natinga in Bawku.
Mahmudu Ziblila, 29, together with his girlfriend, Atika Dramani Osman, 19, was also shot at by two unidentified assailants riding a motorbike. The two sustained various degrees of injury.
On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Mumuni Haruna, a 40-year-old commercial motor operator in the municipality, was allegedly lynched and set ablaze by a group of unidentified youth at Gingande, near the Bawku District Magistrate Court.
According to the police, a deep cut on Haruna’s head and neck indicated that he had allegedly been hit with a sharp object before being set ablaze.
At the end of the three-hour long meeting today, both the REGSEC and the MUSEC called for the beefing up of military personnel in Bawku from the current 150 to 300.
Briefing journalists, the Chairman of the REGSEC, Mr Mark Woyongo, said 105 security personnel would arrive in Bawku at the weekend to support peacekeeping efforts in the area.
He also called for support for the police in terms of logistics such as vehicles, bullet-proof vests and communication gadgets for efficient communication in order to curb the impunity in Bawku.
Mr Woyongo said in order to curb the impunity in Bawku, the Attorney-General’s office in Accra should strengthen its regional office in Upper East with more staff to prosecute cases speedily.
Again, he said Action units of the Ghana Police Service should be deployed in the Bawku municipality, while security personnel should be motivated financially to ensure effectiveness.
The regional minister called on National Security to provide military helicopters for occasional aerial patrols, especially on market days which had proved to be days on which skirmishes occurred.
The REGSEC and the MUSEC noted with concern some media reportage which inflamed passions and called on the media to be circumspect in their reportage.
They asked the media to help them in their efforts to restore lasting peace to the municipality.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Musah Abdulai, said about 70 per cent of the assembly’s revenue was channelled into conflict prevention, to the detriment of development projects in the area.
He, therefore, appealed to the youth to put an end to the incessant conflict in the area for the development of Bawku.