2 Chiefs, Wulomo Killed

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 24 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Three persons, including a chief and traditional priest (Wulomo), were reported dead in Denkyira, a village near Weija, on the outskirts of Accra yesterday, in the latest chieftaincy skirmishes that have rocked the country in recent times.

Just Monday evening, a chief was butchered by unidentified assailants in a Tamale suburb over a similar chieftaincy dispute.

Weija District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kwame Afari, told DAILY GUIDE that some of the deceased persons were shot with guns whiles others were slaughtered with machetes in a manner akin to what happened in Tamale.

According to him, the deaths were the result of clashes between two rival chiefs and their supporters over a parcel of land.

In the heat of the clashes, several houses were said to have been torched with people fleeing for their lives.

The town was said to be a ghost town now, with able-bodied men taking to their heels for fear of being arrested.

Though details of the exact cause of the clashes were still sketchy, the District Commander expressed suspicion that an existing chieftaincy dispute in the village could have resulted in the clashes since two factions were laying claim to the stool.

One person was said to have been seriously injured and rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Brother to one of the deceased persons, Emmanuel Allotey Papoe, narrated that his brother and some of his colleagues were on the disputed land, winning sand when the supposed landguards came to attack them without any provocation.

When news reached the Weija Police, they dispatched some men there who managed to arrest seven people in relation to the clashes.

At the time of filing this report, calm was said to have returned to the village whilst a team of policemen was dispatched from the Kaneshie Divisional Police Command to provide reinforcement.

Virtually all the men in the village were said to have fled, leaving behind only women and children, making the village a ‘ghost town’.
Later, the Kaneshie Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Avedetsi, was said to have gone to the village in the company of a patrol team.