Let's search for the real culprits-Malik

Accra, Aug. 18, GNA - Former Minister for the Interior, Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu on Monday broke his silence on the Dagbon conflict by calling for the search for the "real culprits" of the murder of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, Paramount Chief of Dagbon.

The Member for Yendi, who had declined to comment on the Dagbon conflict after his resignation, said he had decided to speak because "innocent people are being accused of the crime".

He was contributing to the motion for the extension of the State of Emergency in Dagbon Traditional Area.

The Member said: "I am today calling on government to use the hard facts available to it to pursue the real perpetuators and expose them before Ghanaians."

He said he had been personally accused of plotting and supervising the assassination of the Ya-Na adding that some people were still using all available means to prove an untrue story.

Alhaji Yakubu said many lies had been told at press conferences and in radio talk shows and some "had the indecency to plant a story on the Internet and sought to convince Ghanaians that it was a Ghana News Agency (GNA) story".

The GNA had since distanced itself from the appalling story, which could never have come from its end.

He said if government continues to be kind to those who pull the strings and instigate and misinform the Dagbon people so would it continue to chase the wild goose Alhaji Mustapha Iddris, NPP-Gukpegu/Sabongida, asked about the true identity of those said to have died with the Ya-Na during the attack. He asked how the Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings had the information that the Ya-Na was going to be attacked and that how come that on the day of the attack none of the King's wives and children were at the scene.

The Member said outsiders were interfering in the Dagbon crisis and asked that Dagombas should be left alone to settle their differences.