Your Royal Highnesses;
Naa Bakpema Kari-Naa Abdulai Natogmah
Naa Bapira Demon Naa Alhassan
Naa Bapira Zangbalin-Naa
Naa Yeba Ngan-dana
Naa Bapira Gbungbali-Naa
Saboba Naa Ubor Bowan John Sakojim IV
Waapuli Naa
Naalongni Naa Ubor Biniyam Collins IV
Garimata Naa
Nkpegu Naa Kunji Tamanja
Kumakeek Naa Tangmee Majoriba
The Security
Elders, Chiefs and People of Mion Traditional Area
Media
Ladies and gentlemen:
It is for peace that Your Royal Highnesses have paid a royal visit to me, my elders and the good people of Mion Traditional Area. Your visit isarightstep that traditional rulers must take to break the boundaries of our comfort and tradition to chart a path towards PEACE which is the most cherished need for our everyday normal functioning as a people.
I am delighted that this step would speed up the clarion call for PEACE by the Yendi Peace Center, the REGSEC of Northern Region and the peoplewithinand without the Mion traditional enclave.Your Royal Highnesses, I understand you have paid a visit to our King and Overlord, N’dan Ya-Naa, from whom we all draw our powers and authority. I am sure we all agree that we would not allow anybody to disrespect the authority and reverence of our King and Lion of Dagbon.
It is inlight of this that we as Divisional and Sub-Divisional Chiefs of Dagbon expect our people within our traditional jurisdictions to respect the authority of the Skins we occupy.
Anybody, or group of people, be they Dagombas, Konkombas, Basaris, Chekosis, Fulanis etc who grossly display any act of insubordination to any of us aa Divisional and Sub-Divisional Chiefs are doing so to the King of Dagbon and we must rise up against such development.
Your Royal Highnesses, permit me to explain to you the recent incident which nearly escalated into an inter-ethnic conflict.
We all know Mion traditional jurisdiction stretches from the west bank of Kulkpini River through Kulkpini- Duli and Zogbei all the way to other settlements dotted over the area. As allodial Landowner for and on behalf of His MajestytheYa-Naa, I allocated a parcel of land for development at Zogbei. The developer was on site on Tuesday 6th August 2024.
A group of youth whose population was several folds more than the total population of residents of Zogbei massed up to stop the developer from grading works on the allocated parcel of land. The population, I am told, were marshalled from nearby communities with the sole aim of fomenting trouble. I invited them and the Zogbei Residents to my palace to understand their concerns but the invitations were turned down.
On the third occasion of invitation, the youth had issue a word for me that I should contact theMionKonkomba Chief who happens to be a sub-chief of my palace.
When I invited the Mion Konkomba Chief to my Palace, his word was to the effect that neither him nor the Zogbei residents has any claim over that parcel of land and that those youth were only trying to “knock the head of some Konkombas and Dagombas”. This situation proved to me that this youth who wielded guns and machetes were nothing but rabble rousers with the sole aim of disrespecting not only my authority but that of my father, the King and Overlord of Dagbon.
Even if they had any concerns, their refusal tomy invitations predisposed them as miscreants who should not be tolerated in any traditional area. Even if there were crops on thesaidland, the farmer could have demanded compensation and this would have been paid to them as we usually do.
Upon my instruction to ensure that the grading work by the allottee is carried through, my palace guard swent to ensure the grading work goes through. It was in the process the marauded youth who had laid ambush in the distant bushes began targeting gunshots at my palace guards. My guards had the only option of retaliate in inequal or more measure to defend the grader and the operator.
It is this altercation which has led to casualties. The intervention of the Yendi Police Division, the REGSEC, the Yendi Peace Center as well as the Overlord of Dagbon has been so timely that this Zogbei incident did not escalate into a Konkomba-Dagomba inter-ethnic clashes.
I have since co-operated with these stakeholders because I do not fathom a situation where Dagombas and Konkombas could gointoawarsituation over petty issues such as what happened at Zogbei.
Your Royal Highnesses, permit me to narrate to you how Zogbei became a settlement. When late Mion-Lana Ziblim was on the skin, a Konkomba elder by name Sallah was chased out from Bachaboriya because he was believed to be a wizard in that village. Sallah came to late Mion-lana Ziblim to appeal to him to settle at the current place known as Zogbei. This then was uninhabited farmlands belonging to some Dagombas from Mion and Yendi.
lana. This bellicose attempt by these elites to radicalize some youthtoriseup against authorities are felt not only in the Mion area but other palaces. Ibelieve no traditional ruler would countenance a situation wherethehelperwould turn and be at the mercy of such radicalized youth. We needtofindlasting solution to the radicalization of the youth even in placeswherepeople can longer go to their farmlands. There is no doubt that this Zogbei incident had a potential of escalatinginto an inter-ethnic war situation.
Thankfully, Konkombas in Yendi, Tamale, Zabzugu, Gusheigu and many other places have not been targetedbyDagombas. This emphasizes the point that this is an isolated case between some Konkomba youth and me in the Mion area. I understand some Konkombas elsewhere are destroying people’s farms. Caution should be made to them to stop this with immediate effect.
I I wish to emphasize the point that i am fully committed to the PEACE we are all yearning for. I will do everything possible to work hand in hand with the major stakeholders including Your Royal Highnesses. The REGSEC, theYendi Peace Center with DAYA, KOYA and DF among other stakeholders have visited me to work hand-in-hand with us to ensure normalcy is restored.I believe one life lost is as though the whole of humanity is lost.
I will make sure all people in my traditional area live together in PEACE and go about their farming activities without hindrance. While we pray for PEACE, we must pray that the rains which have stopped for about a month ago returns.
Thank you.
Editor’s Note: Published Unedited
