Death Of Ya Na Was Planned

...Andani Counsel implicates security operative in Ya-Na's removal plot
The Wuaku Commission of enquiry into the Yendi Crisis has heard that a meeting to eliminate the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, was held at Bawku on March 12, this year. Present at the meeting were Major Sulemana of the National Security outfit, Alhaji Aminu Amadu and Alhaji Mustapha. This came to light when the leading counsel of the Andani’s, Charles Hayibor suggested it to a witness from the Abudu Gate, Yusif Ziblim who has been accused of being one of the killers of the late King.

But Ziblim denied ever attended any meeting with Major Sulemana and others at Bawku during the planned elimination of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II.

Ziblim, who grew angry when Mr Hayibor asked him questions relating to the meeting at Bawku, asked the lawyer to limit his questions to the disturbances at Yendi between March 25 and 27 for which he was invited to testify before the Wuaku Commission. Mr Hayibor, however, retorted that he was asking those questions because they would lead the Andanis to establish their case against him and other perpetrators of the heinous crime at Yendi.

When he asked Ziblim whether he knew one Osman Mohamed, he replied in the negative and the counsel said at the appropriate time, he would invite him to give evidence to support his claim. Ziblim, who has been accused by Mohammed Awal Musah, a farmer at Binchara-Tanga in the Nanumba District, for confessing to him that he and others killed the Ya-Na, met his accuser face to face at the instance of the commission for cross examination by each other.

While Musah insisted that he knew him, Ziblim denied any knowledge of him, saying he had never met him in his life. Asked by Mr Hayibor why Musah should make such a serious allegation against him and not any other person, he said, he could not tell.

The witness admitted to a question by Mr Justice I. N. K. Wuaku, Chairman of the commission, that he was at the Bolin Lana’s palace between March 25 and 27, explaining that he went there for protection due to the sporadic shooting around the Gbewaa Palace area where he lived. Asked whether the Bolin Lana’s palace was safe, Ziblim said there were many people at the palace, including the Bolin Lana himself, so he did not fear.

When Mr Justice Wuaku asked whether he saw Yidana at the palace, he answered in the negative, to which the commission’s chairman said, “I am not surprised that you did not see him there because you are not telling the commission the truth’. He said he did not know that people from the Gbewaa Palace were shooting towards the Bolin Lana’s palace.

Ziblim admitted that he went to the Bolin Lana’s palace to defend him but he was not armed. He could also not give the number of people who assembled at the palace. To a question by the leading counsel for the Abudus, Nana Obiri Boahen whether he knew the village his accuser lived, he replied in the affirmative but said he never went there on the day in question.

He said nowhere did he declare openly that he would join others in attacking the Gbewaa Palace as alleged by Musah. In his evidence, Mohammed Awal Musah told the commission that he was asleep with others in front of his house at Binchara-Tanga at about 3 am on March 27, when Ziblim woke him up and questioned him whether the Boana chief was around.

He said when he replied in the negative, Ziblim told him to inform the Boana Na that they had achieved their aim and that they would enter the Gbewaa Palace the next morning. Musah stated that when he questioned him how they could enter the palace when the police and soldiers were around, he said the security personnel would not intervene because the Ya-Na had refused a curfew imposed on Yendi.

He said he informed his aunt Ayi Andani who gave him ?10,000 to rush to Yendi to see if their house that is near the palace would be attacked. Musah said on the way to Yendi, they met another vehicle whose driver told them to return since there was fighting at Yendi.

According to him, their driver returned but he continued the journey and on reaching Yendi, he saw from a distance that the Gbewaa Palace was in flames so he returned to his village. The witness said on March 28, while going back to Yendi, he met Ziblim on his motorbike going towards Bimbilla, and again on March 29 heard him telling one Mohammed at the village, that he and others had killed the Ya-Na.