Security has been beefed up in Adoagyiri following a chieftaincy-related death of two persons in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri community in the Eastern Region.
Several others sustained various degrees of gunshot injuries during an attack by one of the factions in the dispute.
Police officers and detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service have stormed the municipality in a bid to track down the killers of the two persons. The killers are said to have used short guns for their deadly mission.
The incident occurred after gun-wielding men and occupants of the Okyeman Land Protection Taskforce, while escorting a convoy of rival chiefs enstooled recently by the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council and sworn in last Tuesday at Kyebi, stormed the Adoagyiri community amid sporadic gunshots.
The shooting led to the death of the deceased, who belonged to the opposing faction in the dispute.
A member of the Okyeman task force was one of those who died in the shooting incident.
The injured were rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital by police officers who had been deployed to the community.
One of the deceased, identified as Kwame Apietu, aged 50, who returned from the USA a few weeks ago to attend the funeral of his late sister, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Currently, there is tension in the community, as the police deployment has been increased.
The associated fear and panic has led to many fleeing the municipality, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
The breakdown of law and order can be traced to last week when some angry sub-chiefs issued a warning to the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council not to allow the outdooring of a rival chief, who, according to them, was clandestinely enstooled.
One Odehye Kwame Ntiamoah from the Dwumana royal family of Adoagyiri was installed as rival chief of Adoagyiri with the stool name Barima Adu Korkor ll under the watch of the police.
The installation of the rival chief provoked the Adoagyiri sub-chiefs and elders, who held a press conference to announce that Adoagyiri has a legitimately gazetted chief for the past 15 years in the person of Okoanadwo Afutu Dompreh II. The enstoolment of the parallel chief, they added, was illegal and a threat to the peace of the town.
The angry chiefs, clad in red and black apparel amid the chanting of war songs, explained that Adoagyiri has never been part of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area but rather under Akyem Kotoku.
They claimed that the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, and the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council have no legal and traditional right to invade the community with the tacit support of the state to enstool a chief.
BY Daniel Bampoe