Accra (Greater Accra) 11 April 2002- The Minority in Parliament has donated five million cedis worth of foodstuff as their contribution towards the upkeep of displaced persons of the Dagbon crises.
A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mr John Mahama for the Minority Secretariat, said the donation was made by a two-member delegation currently visiting Tamale, Yendi, Bumkpurugu and Bawku to lend their assistance to efforts at finding lasting solutions to recent conflicts in those areas. The delegation was made up of Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader and Mrs Alice Boon, MP for Lambussie.
The statement said the delegation made the announcement of the donation when it visited the widows and household of the assassinated Ya-Na Andani Yakub's II, the Over-Lord of Dagomba Traditional Area and other persons displaced by the tragedy at Tamale.
The delegation also visited the Tamale Hospital where five persons including a Junior Secondary School student from the Ya-Na's palace were being treated for bullet wounds. It said the delegation donated 500,000 cedis to the injured.
The group also held a series of meetings, first with representatives of the Andani family led by the Kumbun Na and then with two groups of the Abudu family in Nanton and Tamale.
At the first meeting, Mr Bagbin expressed the condolences of the Minority to the family on the death of Ya-Na Andani and 28 others. He said the Minority was prepared to play an active role in ensuring that justice was done and repeated the call on the government to set up an independent judicial inquiry to investigate the assassination of the Ya-Na.
The statement said the Kumbun Na said true peace could only be established if justice were seen to have been done and reiterated the call for the setting up a judicial enquiry into the incident.
The Kumbun Na also stated that the family had evidence and witnesses to support the allegations they had made against various persons for their complicity in the Yendi massacre. The statement said during the first meeting with the Abudu group, the Nanton Na expressed appreciation for the visit and said he was shocked by the death of the Ya-Na.
He explained that he had an excellent relationship with the Ya-Na and was very shaken by his death. He also supported the call for a full-scale investigation into his death. The meeting with the second group of the Abudu family took place at the late Alhaji Yahaya Iddi's house.
The statement said the family welcomed the visit of the Minority and said they were encouraged by the participation of the minority in finding a solution to the crisis. The statement said the delegation also visited the family of the Nachin Na (Chief of the youth) who died defending the Ya-Na.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - Recent allegations and moves against Major Abubakar Sulemana of the National Security apparatus are nothing more than a grand move to deal with the Sulemana-phobia that has gripped former President J.J. Rawlings and his associates ever since the former Recce Commander returned to Ghana last year, Statesman investigations indicate.
An Accra FM Station recently mentioned Maj. Sulemana as the brain behind the dastardly act in Dabgonland and went on with the wild allegation of having spotted him fleeing the country to Burkina Faso in the company of Liberian mercenaries.
The Statesman’s investigations have however, exposed the news item as a crude and cruel lie after firmly establishing that the ruthlessly efficient veteran soldier has never set foot outside Accra since 2 March this year when he returned from Tamale where he celebrated the Ed-il-Adha festival.
Compounding the flummox, a press statement by some representatives of Dagbon alleged that “some survivors of the Yendi massacre have said Major Sulemana was seen leading what is believed to be dozens of heavily armed Liberian mercenaries in the attack on the Ya-Na’s palace.”
Pursuing the motive behind the wild allegations and painful efforts to stick a charge of murder against him has however revealed a morbid hatred for the man who has become the bęte-noir of former President Rawlings who he has beaten at every turn.
The Rawlings-Sulemana cat and mouse game dates back to 15 May 1979 when the lean and hungry looking Ft-Lt tried to stage his own coup d’etat, which flopped as a stillborn uprising. The man behind his failure was Major Sulemana who was then the officer commanding the Reece regiment of the Ghana Army.
Military legend has it that while the frustrated Ft-Lt, in furtherance of the conspiracy and his band of hungry and angry young men were on a shooting spree in their desire to seize Burma Camp, Sulemana went through the hail of bullets, seized the Ft-Lt’s weapon and mockingly told him to “learn how to do coups properly next time,” after whipping him with it.
When the June 4 uprising succeeded and installed the skimpy looking Rawlings as Head of State of Ghana, Sulemana went underground, slipping through a massive dragnet thrown for him by the regime of junior officers. Though he is known to have lived in the capital for the entire duration of the AFRC, all attempts to capture him proved futile.
Resurfacing immediately after the AFRC’s handover to Dr Hilla Limann, the PNP government must have committed one of its gravest errors when barely six months after, it sent Sulemana away for an overseas course. The December 31 coup took place before the tough Major could return. For him, however, the coup consigned him to life in exile as he was dismissed from the Ghana Army and declared a persona-non-grata.
Sulemana’s next brush with Rawlings was in 1985 when agents of the regime traced him to the home of Alhaji Abass in Kumasi where he was reported to be planning a coup d’etat with some young former military personnel. Within hours, truckloads of heavily armed soldiers were discharged in the vicinity and ordered to storm the house. Again, legend has it that in the ensuring shootout, Sulemana ordered his heavily outgunned group to take flight, giving firm instructions that none of them should look back.
The men who obeyed his order succeeded in running to safety while one young man who disobeyed him and looked behind him was, like the wife of Lot, immediately cut down by the massive ricochet of firepower besieging them.
Outside Ghana, Sulemana for years lived in Togo and Nigeria as a “dissident” of the PNDC until he landed in Liberia. Like the feared Capt Kojo Tsikata before him, who fought as a mercenary in the Congo civil war, Sulemana saw action in the Liberia civil war where he was in the trenches as the military supremo of then rebel leader Charles Taylor who eventually won the war and went on to win the election to become the President of that country.
It is widely believed that the remote cause of the Rawlings government at that time to intervene in the civil war was to prevent Charles Taylor, with Major Sulemana as his right hand man, from taking over the country. The fear was that if that was allowed to happen, Charles Taylor could reciprocate Sulemana’s assistance by offering him a helping hand in his desire to rescue Ghana from PNDC rule.
The Sulemana legend in Liberia is one of a mystery man in charge of a ruthlessly efficient and effective security apparatus, which propped up Charles Taylor and helped him contain waves of moves to assassinate or topple him.
Determined not to allow him back home even while it was declaring a state of amnesty, the NDC in 1998 refused permission for Sulemana to come home for the funeral rites of his father, the late Tolon-Na. The call to national service with the dawn of positive change however brought Sulemana back to Ghana and into the sector he has been comfortable with, the security machinery of state.
The surge of attacks against the Taylor regime and the advances by rebels to his regime since Sulemana’s return speaks volumes about his bulwark role in that regime and how much his absence over there is being felt.
His salvo to Rawlings on his return, “the playing field is now even”, and daring the former President to try his familiar trick again must however have alerted his old foe, now with a political machinery behind him to get back to the drawing board of scheming and chicanery again.
Today, the Dagbon royal finds himself embroiled in the most gruesome of murder allegations against his own king. The Government Spokesman on the Yendi crisis, Ferdinand O. Ayim has said that whoever has allegations of charges to press against anybody should channel them through the avenues that have officially been created, such as the police investigation team under the leadership of Chief Superintendent David Appiah Apeatu and the ministerial team, under the chairmanship of Senior Minister, J.H. Mensah. He also appealed for patience and confidence in the machinery of state, which he said “Is in the hands of competent professionals.”
Some members of the Andani family are, however adamant that “hired foreign mercenaries and their collaborators within the national security apparatus managed to get to the Gbewaa Palace at Yendi to “carry out the massacres of scores of people, including our king.”
They have, accordingly, appealed to the government to “effect the immediate arrest of the following because of what” they see as “their complicity in these heinous crimes against the Dagbon state.” The individuals concerned include Major Abubakar Sulemana of the National Security Advisor, and Malik Yakubu Alhassan, former Minister of Interior. The Government Spokesman on the Yendi crises has asked all parties to the conflict to restrain themselves from “aggravating the situation by refraining from media wars and trials since they have the potential of inflaming the situation and prejudicing investigation.” – The Statesman.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 April 2002 - The Government on Monday named a four-man security investigation team to speed up the process of establishing the identity of culprits involved in the Yendi crisis.
The team is made up of Mr David Asante-Appiatu, Operations Commander of Police Criminal Investigations Division (CID), Mr. Danis Akaob, CID Headquarters, Accra, Superintendent A. K. Daki of the Northern Region CID and Mr V. D. K. Dzakpata, Chief Superintendent of Operations, Northern Regional Police Command. There is no deadline yet for the team to submit its report.
Mr Ferdinand O. Ayim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, told the press in Accra that the Police on Sunday arrested one Seidu on board a Tamale-Yendi bus at a check-point with two locally manufactured pistols.
He said Yendi and its environs were currently a security zone and anyone with arms and ammunitions needed to explain the reasons for possession such arms. Mr Ayim, who was briefing the press on the current situation at Yendi and Tamale, said 56 people had so far been arrested for breaking the curfew and 42 of them would be arraigned before court within the week.
He said two suspects arrested last week were helping the police with their investigations. The government on Thursday, 4 April 2002, announced the arrest of two persons for their alleged involvement in the Yendi clashes in which at least 28 people have been killed. The paramount Chief of Dagbon, the Ya-Na, was also killed.
On the blackout at Tamale during the week-end, Mr Ayim said the Electricity Company of Ghana had indicated that it was due to a break in transmission between the Tamale and Bawku and assured the people of efforts to restore power as soon as possible.
He said so far, both areas had recorded no violence since the attack was made on the Ya-Na's Palace, adding that the police and the military were in full control. Mr Ayim also said the minority in parliament had visited Yendi to assess the situation on the ground. Mr Ayim said life had returned to normal in both Yendi and Tamale with farmers trooping to their farms.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 April 2002- The government has agreed to help the Dagbon Traditional Council to immediately restore the Gbewaa Palace, which was damaged in the fighting between the two factions involved in the Dagbon Chieftaincy dispute in Yendi as its contribution towards restoring peace and normality.
As a first step, personnel of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Tamale have been despatched to Yendi to assess the situation while the Ministry of Works and Housing has been tasked to appraise all resources required to ensure that portions of the Palace destroyed were restored as quickly as possible.
This was announced by Mr Kwabena Agyepong, Deputy Government Spokesman, when briefing newsmen on developments on the Yendi crisis at the Castle, Osu, on Friday.
He said the situation on the ground had stabilised to the extent that the Army Commander, Major-General C.D. Yaache would return to Accra on Friday. However, Brigadier George Ayiku, Commanding Officer of the Northern Sector, would remain in Tamale to oversee the State of Emergency.
Mr. Agyepong said President John Agyekum Kufuor during consultations with the three-member Mediation Team on the Yendi crisis, gave the assurance that the on-going criminal investigations being undertaken by the security agencies into the crisis would be pursued vigorously to the end.
"These enquiries are entirely even handed and thoroughly professional and will aim at bringing to book anyone who is found to have infringed the law," he added. Mr Agyepong appealed to interested groups with any relevant information on the crisis to inform the police or the Ministerial Task Force which has been set up by President Kufuor to help manage and resolve the crisis.
On the work of the Mediation Team, Mr Agyepong said it advised both factions in the crisis to desist from any further public utterances that could jeopardise the negotiations by inflaming tempers and hardening positions.
He said the team had set up a timetable of work during the coming weeks that would take them through the whole range of issues in the crisis. "The team re-affirmed their commitment to help government and the people of Dagbon to find lasting solution to the problem," he added.
Mr Agyepong said the delegations from the Andani and Abudu Gates involved in the crisis would return to Dagbon on Friday, adding that they had pledged to make themselves available for the programme of work that had been set out and to co-operate with the team.
Twenty-eight people were reported killed in the fighting, which occurred between 25 and 27 March. The Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Paramount Chief of the Dagbon Traditional Area was also reported killed.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 05 April 2002 - Two persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the Yendi clashes, the government said on Thursday. Mr Ferdinand O. Ayim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, told the press that the arrests were made on Wednesday night at Tamale and the suspects were in Police custody.
Mr Ayim, who was briefing the press on the current situation at Yendi and Tamale, said both towns were very calm with maximum co-operation from the people. He said so far, both areas had recorded no violence since the attack was made on the Ya-Na's Palace last week, adding that the Police and the military were in full control.
Mr Ayim stated that the two major factions, the Andani and Abudu royal families had met with President John Agyekum Kufuor and agreed to uphold the peace. He also announced that the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Yagbon-Wura Bawa Doshie II, Paramount Chief of Gonja Traditional Area and Nayiri Gamni Muhammadu Abudulai, Paramount Chief of Mamprugu Traditional Area, were meeting with President Kufuor to decide on a framework for peaceful mediation.
He appealed to the media to be circumspect in their reportage, adding; "we need to assure the people that safety and security would prevail in the area". Mr Ayim said any negative report could jeopardise government's efforts to restore peace in the area and this could also affect the food security of the country, since the nation depended largely on the area for its major staples.
He announced that directives had been given to the Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council to underwrite all medical expenses of injured victims of the clashes as well as mortuary fees. He also said the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had been called in to assist with the refugee problems at Tamale.
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