"Prefix 'Doba' to your names"; Doba youth warns settler communities

Doba and Kandiga, two communities in the two Kassena-Nankana District in the Upper East Region, are sitting on a time bomb as they have grudgingly disagreed on the change of name for a settler community in the area.

As elements of potential conflict brews, the Doba people who claim to be the indigenes have vowed to protect their land from any intruding group.

The Doba people who have boycotted two national exercises including the recent biometric registration, insist that the change of Doba Akurugu-Daboo by the Electoral Commission (EC) to Azaase-Atoasale without their involvement was criminal and should be reversed immediately.

The Doba Youth Association, a youth group based in Doba in the Kassena-Nankana East District, held a press conference at the weekend to explain the reasons that led to the suspension of the just ended biometric voter’s registration exercise in the area.

A statement signed and read by the Chairman of the group, Mr. Anontara Clement Asakiya at the instance of the Doba chief, Naaba Akurakai Atinyoa, warned that all settler communities including Abempengo-Akonkongo, Akukam Azaase among others, should pre-fix “Doba” in their existing names.

Mr. Asakiya further instructed that, all public institutions including religious bodies like the Catholic Church in Akurugu-Daboo and its environs to also prefix Doba to their names; and that in future all projects coming into Doba must be known to the Doba Chief and the Tindanas (land owners) for appropriate advice.

According to the youth, sections of the public and the media have continuously reported that their boycott of the biometric voter’s registration exercise was merely because of a change of name of an electoral area, saying it was not wholly true.

They said the underlining factor was essentially land issues, adding that they have had cordial relationships with the people of Kandiga except those settlers on Doba lands and some elements within Kandiga who have for the past years tried through unscrupulous means to annex their lands.

“It is for these land issues that we felt obliged to correct the wrong impression pointed out and educate the public on who the actual owners of the lands is and as well expose those trouble makers who have tried fomenting trouble between the good people of Kandiga and the peace loving people of Doba” the group added.

Mr. Asakiya said, the chief of Doba and Tindanas were not consulted when the EC in their efforts to bring participatory democracy to the people, created new districts in the country including Abempengo-Akonkongo electoral areas while Akurugu-Daboo was changed to Azaase-Atoasale electoral areas.

The group explained that Doba Naba and his Tindanas disagreed with the change and considered it an affront to their dignity and undermined their authority as traditional rulers.

The EC, following this development, conveyed a meeting at its Regional office in Bolgatanga with the various stakeholders and concluded that, since the EC was an independent body, it could only take instructions from the National Security Council and on security reasons suspended the process.

It stated that it had reposed confidence in the EC and their political leaders, hoping that the right procedures would be followed. “The name Azaase-Atosale appeared during the voter’s registration exercise again which infuriated us and we felt our political leadership had failed us, hence our spontaneous action that led to the suspension of the exercise to be carried out in Akurugu-Daboo and Abempengo-Akonkongo electoral areas” the group stressed.

It added that it was evident that some unscrupulous persons were trying all they could to annex Doba lands and that the people of Doba were prepared to lay down their lives to protect lands that rightfully belonged to them.

In order to bring lasting peace to the area and allow the biometric voter’s registration exercise to be conducted in the near future, the group insisted that Azaase-Atoasale electoral area be reverted to Akurugu-Daboo electoral area with remaining communities prefixed with Doba in any official dealings.

The group assured government of their fullest cooperation towards finding lasting solution to the problem for the sake of peace and development.**