Minority Chief Whip named in Talensi violence

-But he denies involvement
-Says, ``I am not part of the Conflict, I’m only trying to create peace there.``

The Minority Chief Whip, Hon. John Tia, has been entangled in a looming trouble in his constituency.

Alongside Hon John Tia, Member of Parliament (MP) for Talensi Constituency, who was accused of the ominous violence, is his political opponent, Madam Adukoma, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) candidate for the constituency in the last general elections.

Both prominent politicians in the constituency have been named by one of the factions, Gonno-Torsin, as the chief architects of the recent problems emanating from the year-old violence that broke out between the Gonno-Tursin people and Tango Beo community near Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

In a statement released in Kumasi and copied to The Chronicle, the Chairman of the Gonno-Torsin community in Kumasi, Mr. Williams Azasiboba stated, “Hon John Tia and Madam Adukoma are behind the chief of Tango Beo, Beo Rana Naaba Anaaba Nabio to engineer the problems without finding out the existing traditions and norms between Tango Beo and Tonno-Torsin.

When The Chronicle reached Hon. John Tia on phone, he refuted the allegation, saying that his crime was as a result of he preventing a certain Samuel Aninga, an employee of the Ghana Water Company, who is operating a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Bolgatanga from using some funds from the Netherlands Embassy for his personnel use.

According to the Minority Chief Whip, the gentleman received ¢10.6 million for construction of hand dug wells, but had wanted to divert the fund into his pocket and he the MP prevented him from doing that.

He said, “Since then the Aninga man is going round to spread these false allegation against me”.

Hon John Tia warned that he does not want his name to be dragged into the dispute because he himself was a royal from a different community and for that matter he would not like to do something that would tarnish his reputation.

“As an MP for the area, I have an interest and that was why I tabled a motion on the floor of Parliament for the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Boniface Agambila to answer questions on the glomming picture in the area,” he stressed.

He added that his interest was to get peace in the area and as such he would not support anybody to create anarchy in the constituency.

The MP said also, “anyone who says both Madam Adukoma and myself are behind the violence, that person is lying” saying, “We don’t know anything about it”.

Continuing, Mr. Azasiboba regretted that during the conflict, the Gonno-Torsin community suffered a lot of casualties with their houses, other properties and food stuff burnt, whilst their women and children were brutally assaulted, but up to now nothing had being done to bring the perpetrators to book.

He indicated in the statement that the Beo Rana has been threatening the Gonno-Torsin people with guns and even preventing them from putting up new houses.

According to the statement, the Rana Beo was also preventing his opponent from burying their loved ones in the town.

To ensure peace in the area, the Gonno-Torsin Community in Kumasi called on the government to intervene in the outcome of the investigations into the conflict that broke out on January 23, 2005 between the Gonno-Torsin Community and Tongo Beo.

According to the Gonno-Torsin community, the former Regional Minister, Mr. Mahami Salifu, immediately after the violence set up an investigative committee to go into the matter, but up to date the results had been held up.

They quoted also a newspaper publication dated 25 to 31 of July that the current Regional Minister, Hon. Agambila had disclosed that the report by the committee had been submitted to him and was still under study The Torsin community also declared that they would not join the Talansi Nabdam District, but rather the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, since they are coming from Zuarungu.

According to them, they were not benefiting anything from the Talensi Nabdam district and do not see why they should belong to such a district.