Chereponi residents demand ‘neutral’ arbiter, want Defense Minister sacked

Some residents of Chereponi in the Northern Region are calling on President Akufo-Addo to immediately remove the Defense Minister, Dominic Nitiwul.

The call comes on the back of a curfew imposed on Chereponi and Saboba Townships following clashes between Anufuls and Kokonbas that have resulted in the death of four persons.

Though security in the affected communities has been beefed up, residents who spoke to Citi News said the Defense Minister, who is a Kokomba, is not handling the land dispute fairly.

“We are calling on the president to as a matter of urgency remove the Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul. If the intelligence of His Excellency the president is on the grounds, the President should have been told that the Defense Minister’s tribe, the Konkombas have fought all the ethnic groups in the North and he (Dominic Nitiwul) shouldn’t have been the Defense Minister.”

“We believe that he is behind his people. Why, for the past four days people are killed, properties destroyed and nothing is being done. Nitiwul hasn’t come to Chereponi to see, but he on the eve of the day the fight broke, was in Saboba. The president should call him to answer and he must be removed from the post,” he said.

Another resident who spoke to Citi News also blamed the Defence Minister for the slow response from the armed forces in restoring calm and order.

“Dominic Nitiwul must step aside so that a neutral person comes in. For a neutral person, we believe he can bring the two parties together, if he had done his work well this issue would not have aggravated, and now look at the time he took to send in the military, when distress calls were made.”

Chereponi communal clashes over land leaves 4 dead

Four persons are now reported dead as a result of communal violence that broke out in the Chereponi District of the Northern Region.

This comes after the residents protested against a curfew imposed on the town by the Interior Ministry to curtail the situation.

It has been five days since chaos enveloped the town resulting in the loss of lives and destruction of several homes and other properties.

The District Chief Executive for Chereponi, Tahidu Razak, said in a Citi News interview that “for the casualties, what I know is that they are four.”

The government has deployed more security personnel to forestall calm in the town.

According to the DCE, security personnel were flown into the town with by helicopter.

Source: citinewsroom.com