Spokesperson Thomas Dandzo handing over petiioin to Ho West DCE
The chiefs and people of Saviefe and their allies that have formed the Sasadu Union have given the Police a 14-day ultimatum to locate their relative George Eric Komla Akorli who went missing on Saturday, 25th November, 2017.
They gave the warning at Dzolopuita in Ho West District of the Volta Region after over 500 residents walked for several hours from Saviefe to Dzolopuita to petition the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ho West and Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Hohoe.
The residents, who were backed by their chiefs and other opinion leaders, were clad in red attire.
They sang war songs and complained about the kidnappings and killings in the area.
Since Saviefe is part of SASADU, which also comprises Akrofu, Sovie and Alavanyo, both traditional elders and citizens from all the areas joined the residents of Saviefe to demonstrate.
Background
On Saturday, 25th November, 62-year-old George Eric Komla Akorli, who left Saviefe to Alavanyo in the Hohoe Municipality the previous day to join friends, family and relatives to celebrate the SASADU Festival, went missing.
The annual festival, which is held on rotational basis in the four SASADU traditional areas, was hosted by Alavanyo to celebrate the migration of their ancestors from Nortsie in the Republic of Togo to their present location in Ghana.
On Saturday, George, who had a good time with friends, went missing. Several attempts to trace him proved futile, causing fear and panic among the celebrants.
About four relatives in Saviefe received calls from George’s number from an unknown person.
“The person said the owner of the phone came to their town and they killed him and so we should not bother to look for him,” the spokesperson of Saviefe, Thomas Dandzo alleged.
Mr Dandzo also alleged the caller identified himself as ‘Lucifer’ from Nkonya, a claim that is yet to be substantiated by the Police.
Ultimatum
He said “we have been patient for far too long to allow the Police and other security agencies to do their work. Our patience is running out, as we have not heard or seen any concrete steps being taken to bring closure to the issue.
“We are demonstrating to let the whole country and the world to know what happened for the right things to be done. We have given the Police 14 days to unravel the mystery.
“We want to see our son, George Komla Akorli dead or alive so we give him a proper burial if dead.”
Assurance
Receiving the petition, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ho West, Ernest Victor Appau, assured the people that he the Hohoe MCE, Andrew Teddy Ofori and Biakoye DCE, Comfort Attah have been collaborating with the security agencies to locate him.
The Hohoe MCE, Teddy Ofori also noted that a joint police and military team would soon storm the Nkonya-Alavanyo forest to conduct a thorough search.
He noted that the culprits would be made to face the full rigorous of the law.
From Fred Duodu, Dzolokpuita (k.duodu@yahoo.com)