A senior local officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Chereponi in the North East Region has been detained by police at Yendi, after he was found transporting hundreds of live ammunition to the area.
Gushi Kwesi Mohammed, the district Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NHIS, was arrested on Sunday evening with 250 pieces of AAA cartridges concealed in ten boxes which he was carrying to the troubled district, where communal violence between tribal Konkombas and Chokosis has been forced to a relaxation by security forces.
Police said they received a tip off from an informant that a Tamale-Chereponi bound Metro Mass vehicle with registration number GR 2026 – U had the ammunition on board.
The information was relayed to security checkpoints on the Yendi – Chereponi road and the said vehicle was intercepted at about 4.10pm.
After a thorough search of the vehicle, police found a red and blue sack containing the item with invoice books bearing the name of Isaah Yuss Agro-Chemicals.
According to police, the suspect claimed ownership of the sack and its content but stated that it was given to him in Tamale by a man he could identify, when seen, to be delivered to Issah Yussif Bataja in Chereponi.
The suspect was further searched at the station, the police added, and in his travelling bag contained same invoices found in the sack.
He has since been kept in custody with the exhibit for further investigations.
Fighting between the ethnic tribes in the rural district has killed at least 50 people, according to locals figures, since it renewed almost six months now.
In what started as a petty land dispute in a village called Naduni which was quelled after the death of two konkombas in 2018, violence has spread to more a quarter of the impoverished district and into neighbouring districts.
With about four major hostilities since the 2017 incident, more than 2,000 have been forced from their villages, according to Nadmo estimates.
In this latest escalation, violence erupted at a small village known as Tombu near Saboba after members of the feuding tribes had a mild misunderstanding on a farmland said to belonged to the Konkombas.
Some chokosis had allegedly set fire on the farmland and opened fire when the Konkombas came around to demand some answers forcing them to retreat.
By nightfall on June 16, several villages were on fire and the violence relentless continued to almost 85 villages now.
About 16 arrest were made, two jailed and about nine still on trial.
All public services, with the exception of the district clinic, have broken-down– schools are closed and the district assembly has been shut.
There is currently a fragile ceasefire forced in place by regional politicians and national tribal leaders, still the district remains divided and security situation very delicate.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
