The Abudu royal family in the relaxed Dagbon chieftaincy crisis has warned it will take retaliatory steps today Friday, August 3, to stop a planned installation of the sitting regent, Kampakuya Naa Yakubu Abdulai, as overlord and new King of Dagbon.
In an emergency press briefing at Yendi, the family called on government, the Municipal and Regional Security Councils to urgently intervene and block the Andanis from accessing the royal mausoleum in order to avoid the repeat of the 2002 clashes.
Disclosing their intent to resist the process, Mumuni Yussif, spokesman of the Abudu Youth said the Abudus should not be blamed if government and the local security council fail to stop the Andanis from carrying out the “unthinkable”.
“We have received some reports that Friday, 3rd of August 2018, the Kug Naa may want to do the unthinkable thing of secretly attempting to enskin the Kampakuya Naa as overlord of the Dagbon Kingdom”, Mumuni Yussif, spokesman of the Abudu Youth disclosed.
Refering to stakeholders, the family added: “they shouldn’t blame the Abudus for what we have equally planned to do to contain the situation”.
In their first public statement since the chieftaincy tension appeared to have renewed more than a year now, the family said they no longer recognise the Asantehene-led commitee as the mediator of the conflict and called for it to be scrapped.
“The Abudu Youth have come to the painful conclusion that we would have been better off if the committee had not been set up in the first place. The committee has supervised the violations of almost all the major clauses and terms of the references in their own Roadmap to Peace including the ensminment of the so called Kuga Naa, among others”
“It is a fact that the Otumfou led committee of Eminent Kings in our peace process all this while has left customs and traditions, law and common sense, and particularly the absolute truth, and has stuck to lies, evils, and machinations by chieftaincy contractors and self seeking greedy undesirable elements especially from the Andani family”, the family raged.
The Abudu family renewed calls for access to the Old Gbewaa palace to perform the funeral rite of Naa Mahamadu Abdulai IV. They declared frustratedly that the funeral rite of the late royal “is simple, legal, customary and common sense, and an end to the crisis in Dagbon”.
The family condemned the enskinment of one Naa Abdulai as the Kuga Naa and also raised concerned about government attitude towards the conducts of the Asantehen- led committee, which according to the family has been compromised.
“We the Abudu Youth and Family have been too peace loving, too law abiding and too cooperative but don’t take us for granted. The government, the Otumfou-led committee and delay of the court process are serious issues to worry about. We would be relentless although cooperative with the security in ensuring peace. Any act of violence should be blamed on these institutions mediating the Yendi skin debacle”, the family warned.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
