The Chereponi District Chief Executive (DCE), who is also the Chairperson of the District Security Council (DISEC), Madam Zuweatu Mada Nashiru, has disclosed to DAILY GUIDE that 10 persons have been arrested in connection with the chieftaincy clashes at Wenchiki in the Chereponi District of the North East Region.
According to her, the suspects have been transferred from Chereponi to Yendi in the Northern Region for prosecution.
The suspects were arraigned before the Yendi court and remanded into prison custody to reappear on March 9, 2023.
The Chereponi DCE appealed to the two feuding factions to use dialogue to address their differences.
“I am appealing to the two factions to lay down their arms and use dialogue to address their challenges because the chieftaincy dispute is adding up to the numerous challenges we are facing as a district, and this can push away any developmental opportunities we would have been benefiting from,” she stated.
She added that no investor will come to a place where there are disputes and clashes.
Women in the Wenchiki community and its environs have fled the area with their children to neighbouring communities for safety.
About four persons were reportedly shot dead in a chieftaincy clash between two Anufor (Chakossi) factions in Wenchiki.
Other persons including a soldier have also suffered various degrees of injuries and are receiving treatment at the Chereponi Hospital.
Several houses have been burnt into ashes in the ongoing dispute.
The Chief of Wenchiki in the Chereponi Traditional Area, Abubakari Awufor, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, disclosed that the chieftaincy clash is as a result of an enskinment of a subchief of a community called Nyagbad in the Wenchiki community.
“We were doing the enskinment when our rivals started firing into the crowd, and our men also retaliated. Some houses have been burnt as well, and as we speak there’s a dead body in front of my palace now.”
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the affected community and its environs to protect lives and property.
FROM Eric Kombat, Chereponi