The recent killings in the Alavanyo-Nkonya towns of the Volta region have nothing to do with the protracted land dispute there, the Volta regional Minister Dr. Archibald Letsa has disclosed.
“We have gone beyond land issues now,” he told Francis Abban on Morning Starr Monday, May 22, 2017, adding: “These are all reprisal attacks and it is unfortunate the people seemed to be taking the law into their own hands to retaliate previous murders and we are taking this as criminal offenses.”
The Minister’s disclosure comes at the back of the killing of a 62-year-old woman at the area Saturday May 20, 2017.
The woman identified as Elizabeth Yawa Anku, according to reports met her untimely death when she went mango picking about 100 metres from her home at Alavanyo-Kpeme.
It was however, unclear if the killing has links with the recent clashes between the two communities over lands which left three dead.
But commenting on the development, Dr. Letsa disclosed that the recent incidents have no links whatsoever to the age-old land disputes there and that perpetrators of the acts “are known but the community is unwilling to give them out.”
“Until people get apprehended and punished, we will have a long way to go. We are hoping that the people in the communities will give the necessary information we need. The people in the communities are tightlipped and unwilling to give information,” he added.
The latest death is also coming on the heels of the killing of a 15-year-old boy a week ago. He was gunned down by some unidentified men who invaded the community.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, has on the advice of the Volta Regional Security Council and by Executive Instrument, renewed the curfew hours imposed on the Alavanyo and Nkonya townships from 8.00 pm to 5.30 am.
The curfew takes effect from Sunday, May 21, 2017.
A release signed by the Minister and copied to the Ghana News Agency said the Government continued to express its appreciation to the chiefs, elders and youth of the area for their efforts towards peace.
It also urged them to find peaceful ways of settling conflicts in the area.
Government reiterates the ban on persons of the two towns from carrying weapons, adding that those who breach the order would be arrested and prosecuted, the release said.
In April, three people from Nkonya were killed by some assailants which resulted in the suspension of the Paramount Chiefs and Queen Mothers of both traditional areas indefinitely by the Volta Regional House of Chiefs for their failure to maintain peace between the two traditional areas.
