Dagbon Regicide: Failure of State Security Apparatus

A GNA Feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi

Accra, March 31, GNA - This Writer having been a Gatekeeper at the Ghana News Agency since 1998 and rising to become the Chief Gatekeeper and having edited most of the stories on the assassination of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Overlord of Dagbon Traditional Area of the Northern Region of Ghana, and matters arising thereof, is of the strongest opinion that the whole saga was a classical failure of the State Security Apparatus.

It, therefore, stands to reason that if any persons should be prosecuted, it should be those, who were in charge of the State Security Apparatus at the time for criminal negligence of duty and not the small flies.

One may ask for the reasons why this Writer came to this conclusion. To answer this question let us take an odyssey through the files of Ghana News Agency to see whether the conclusion reached by this Writer is credible.

On March 25 2002 GNA reported: 93A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on the Yendi Township and surrounding areas following renewed chieftaincy conflict between the Abudu and Andani gates to the Ya- Na Skin of Dagbon Traditional Area, according to first reports." Later the same day the Agency filed this report: 93Two people have been injured following exchange of gunfire between supporters of the Andani and Abudu gates to Ya-Na Skin of the Dagbon Traditional Area. "The District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that the two have been admitted to the Yendi Government Hospital.

"He said the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes. "Mr Tijani said he was going round the town to assess the situation adding that the Police had not made any arrest yet." Mr Tijani had telephoned this Writer to complain about a story he claimed was aired on the Savannah Radio of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in Tamale that said he had run away from Yendi. He said he was a brave man and would not run away. This Writer told him he had just received the story about the fighting from Yendi and was still working on it so the GNA could not have been the source of the story he was complaining about. This Writer then took the opportunity to interview him, hence the story above.

On the same day the Agency sent an update: 93A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on Yendi in the Northern Region due to mounting tension between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates to Ya-Na Skin of the Dagbon Traditional Area.

"Two people sustained gunshot wounds when the two factions clashed on Monday morning forcing the Northern Regional Security Committee to deploy armed soldiers and police to the area to stop the violence.

"The Regional Security Committee has also banned the celebration of this year's annual Bugum (Fire) Festival at Yendi that was expected to take place on Monday night.

"Tension has been mounting between the two gates since last January over the celebration of the Muslim Eid ul-Adha festival. "The Andani Gate that is currently occupying the Dagbon Skin was said not to have been happy when the rival Abudu Gate celebrated the festival in the traditional way at the house of its regent. "Since then, there had been rumours of an imminent attack and counter-attack by the rival chieftaincy gates, which boiled over into an exchange of gunfire on Monday morning.

"The clash was precipitated when one of the factions allegedly attacked a young man from the rival camp and destroyed his bicycle. "The military was quickly deployed into town and they managed to control the situation.

"It is to avert a possible clash during the fire festival that the District Security Committee and the Regional Security Committee cancelled the festival and imposed a dusk to dawn curfew.

"There had been a long-standing dispute over the succession to the Ya-Na Skin.

"The District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that two people have been admitted to the Yendi Government Hospital. "He said the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes (on Mon= day). "Mr Tijani said he was going round the town to assess the situation adding that the Police had not made any arrest yet." The 93Daily Graphic" also got the story and interviewed the Minister of The Interior about it. He said there was peace in Yendi, refer to 26th March 2002 Edition of the 93Daily Graphic" page three column three - 93In a related development, The Minister of Interior, Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu has denied that there was fighting in Yendi, which has resulted in casualties. He explained that the decision of both the REGSEC and the Yendi DISEC to impose the curfew was to forestall the clash of contending factions in the town during the celebration of the festival. Alhaji Malik Yakubu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Yendi, said since the threats to breach the peace were real and the protection of life and property and the peace and security of the area were of paramount concern to the regional and district authorities, the best thing in the circumstances was to act the way they did."

The question here is how could the Minister of the Interior, who is also the MP for Yendi not to know what was happening in his constituency? To this Writer this amounted to 93criminal lack of knowledge". He could easily have telephoned home to find out about what was happening.

On 26th March 2002 the GNA reported: 93Sporadic gunshots have been going on at Yendi in the Northern Region since Tuesday morning despite the presence of armed soldiers and police. "In the process, one person Musah Abdulai was wounded, bringing to three the total number of injured persons since the skirmishes between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates of Dagbon started on Monday.

"The Deputy Northern Regional Police Commander, Mr John Yali told the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Tuesday that Yakubu Mahama alias Fuu Mahama and Abdulai Issahaku alias Bona Yuu were wounded during the Monday's clash.

"Fuu Mahama was shot in the thigh and Bona Fuu in the knee. They are all on admission at the Yendi Hospital.

"Mr Yali said there were no incidents on Monday night and that both factions respected the curfew.

"He said security personnel were guarding vital installations at Yen= di.

"He could not, however, tell why the telephone link to Yendi has been broken.

"Tension continues to mount at Yendi as supporters of both factions in the dispute continue to pour in from surrounding villages. "A dusk to dawn curfew was imposed on Yendi on Monday due to the tension between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates to Ya-Na Skin of the Dagbon Traditional Area.

"The Northern Regional Security Committee deployed armed soldiers and police to the area and banned the celebration of this year's annual Bugum (Fire) Festival at Yendi that was expected to take place on Monday night.

"Tension had been mounting between the two gates since last January over the celebration of the Muslim Eid ul-Adha festival. "The Andani Gate that is currently occupying the Dagbon Skin was said not to have been happy when the rival Abudu Gate celebrated the festival in the traditional way at the house of its regent. "Since then, there had been rumours of an imminent attack and counter-attack by the rival chieftaincy gates, which boiled over into an exchange of gunfire on Monday morning.

"The clash was precipitated when one of the factions allegedly attacked a young man from the rival camp and destroyed his bicycle. "The District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview on Monday that the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes. "There has been a long-standing dispute over the succession to the Ya-Na Skin."

From the above it becomes clear that the National Security apparatus was very much aware of the volatile situation and should have deployed sufficient number of personnel to ensure the safety of the people of Yendi but it did not do that as subsequent events would reveal.

On that fateful Wednesday 27 March 2002, GNA reported: 93Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, Paramount Chief of the Dagbon Traditional Area was killed in overnight fighting in Yendi, usually reliable sources told the Ghana News Agency.

"A number of people are also reported killed in the fighting, which erupted last Monday between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates to Ya-Na Skin.

Sporadic gunshots were heard during the whole of Tuesday despite the presence of armed soldiers and police.

"By 1800 hours on Tuesday three persons: Musah Abdulai, Yakubu Mahama alias Fuu Mahama and Abdulai Issahaku alias Bona Yuu had received gunshot wounds and were on admission at the Yendi Government Hospital.

"A dusk to dawn curfew was imposed on Yendi on Monday because of the tense situation there.

"The Northern Regional Security Committee deployed armed soldiers and police to the area and banned the celebration of this year's annual Bugum (Fire) Festival at Yendi that was to have taken place on Monday night. "Tension had been mounting between the two gates since last January over the celebration of the Muslim Eid ul-Adha festival. "The Andani Gate that is currently occupying the Dagbon Skin was said not to have been happy when the rival Abudu Gate celebrated the festival in the traditional way at the house of its regent. "Since then, there had been rumours of an imminent attack and counter-attack by the rival chieftaincy gates, which boiled over into an exchange of gunfire on Monday morning.

"The clash was precipitated when one of the factions allegedly attacked a young man from the rival camp and destroyed his bicycle. "The District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview on Monday that the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes. "There has been a long-standing dispute over the succession to the Ya-Na Skin.

The Agency sent an update: 93Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, Paramount Chief of the Dagbon Traditional Area was killed in overnight fighting in Yendi, a statement issued by the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, Mr Jake Obetesbi- Lamptey in Accra said on Wednesday.

"A number of people are also reported killed in the fighting, which erupted last Monday between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates to Ya-Na Skin.

"People fleeing the area told the Ghana News Agency that the town was littered with dead bodies and several houses around the Ya-Na's palace had been burnt down but that the palace was intact. "There were sporadic gunshots on Tuesday morning and afternoon but this intensified during the curfew hours and lasted throughout the night.

"The security personnel, who were deployed to keep the peace, were helpless as the two factions went on rampage. "Tension is mounting in Tamale as people from both factions are mobilising to go to Yendi, the capital of the Dagbon Traditional Area. "More military reinforcement has been despatched from Tamale to Yend= i.

"Telephone links to Yendi have been cut off since Tuesday. "Meanwhile the Northern Regional Security Committee has been meeting all day discussing how to contain the crisis. Tears were uncontrollably streaming down the cheeks of this Writer, while he was editing these stories. It was the second time in his 34 years career as a journalist that he had shed tears in the course of performing his duty. The first instance was at the Bolgatanga Government Hospital during the outbreak of cerebro-spinal-meningitis in 1997 when mothers were arriving at the Hospital at about five minutes intervals with their children and after the Nurses had examined them, wrote "D.O.A.", which meant "dead-on-arrival" in their notebooks.

While this Writer was editing the story above Mr Clemence Okumah, a Sub-Editor, asked him: 93Sir, since when did Governments announce the death of Chiefs?" The question brought home forcefully to this Writer that something was wrong and corrective measures were to be taken immediately.

The Minister apparently did not take into consideration the backlash to the announcement in the Dagbon Traditional Area. This Writer quickly called the Tamale Office and directed a Reporter to go and interview the Counsel of the Andani Gate, Mr Ibrahim Mahama about the whereabouts of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani.

The GNA subsequently filed the story below, which made Andani Gate Warriors, who were on their way to attack the Abudus in Yendi, to return to Tamale. If the Andani Warriors had reached Yendi on that fateful day the pogrom would have been unimaginable.

dead as announced by the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

"Counsel for the Andani gate in the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama confirmed to the Ghana News Agency that the Ya-Na is alive but declined to disclose his whereabouts.

"He said the person who was beheaded at the palace was not the Ya-Na, but a mistaken identity by the mercenaries hired to kill him. "Several residents of Tamale on hearing the news that the Ya-Na was still alive defied the curfew and trooped to Alhaji Mahama's house to have first hand information about the Ya-Na." This Writer also had the duty to edit many of the stories GNA filed from the sittings of the Wuaku Commission, that was subsequently set up to investigate the Dagbon Regicide. In all these it came out clearly that the assassination of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani was as a result of the National Security Apparatus' failure to do its work 96 the Wuaku Commission made this observation in its final report. 31 March 11