POLICE, SUSPECT UNDER MOB ATTACK (PAGE 3, NOV 18, 2010)

THE premises of the Bawku Circuit Court turned into a battle ground yesterday when a group of people hurled stones at the police and a man standing trial at the court for allegedly writing a letter challenging the legitimacy of the sitting Paramount Chief of Bawku.
The action of the mob followed the decision by the court to grant bail to one Abdul Rahaman-Suleman Afoli, a Bawku-based trader, who is standing trial after the police arrested him and charged him with offensive conduct likely to breach peace and publication of false news with the intent to cause fear and alarm.
Afoli is said to have circulated a letter challenging the legitimacy of the current Bawku Naba.
He made his first appearance in court last week and was remanded, but on his second appearance yesterday the court granted him bail and adjourned the case to November 22, 2010.
Some youth who disagreed with the position of the court allegedly started pelting the police and the suspect with stones at the end of the proceedings.
The Bawku Divisional Police Command said the police had to resort to the firing of warning shots to scare away the mob and ensure that sanity prevailed.
The Bawku Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Musa Abdulai, told the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview that a taxi was burnt as a result of the disturbance in town, but indicated that the security agencies were in control of the situation to ensure that peace was restored in the area.
According to the police, on October 18, 2010, the accused wrote a letter, headed, “Attention: Public Notification of the Chieftaincy Act of 2008 (Act 759) and the Chieftaincy Bulletin, Vol. 1, of November, 2009”, in which he said the present Bawku Naba “is not the Chief of Bawku” and put it into circulation.
According to the police, the action of the accused person was capable of disturbing or tampering with the relative peace prevailing in Bawku.
The police said available records showed that the present Bawku Chief, Zurang Naba Abugrago Asigri Azoka II, was enskinned on April 24,1984 and was gazetted in the Local Government Bulletin of September, 1986.