President Mahama’s promise was comic relief – Andanis

The Andani family has laughed over promise made by President John Mahama to address the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis, saying it was a comic relief.

Speaking on an Accra based radio station, spokesperson of the family, Mahama Shaibu said the president's speech was taken with a pinch of salt, and challenged the NDC government to find the killers of the late Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, as the party pledged before the 2008 elections.

President Mahama, addressing a durbar of chiefs and people in Tamale on Monday, repeated government intention to bring killers of the late King to book.

He asked: “We were promised that the NDC will establish a presidential commission to look into it and now they are talking about resolving the issue? Are they going to resolve the issue devoid of arresting the perpetrators of the Ya-Na?”

To him, the only way for President Mahama is for him to go back to the NDC's 2008 manifesto pledge by setting up the presidential commission.

Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, the overlord of Dagbon was killed in cold blood in March 2002 after which he was dismembered and his body parts taken away by his assailants.

Reports say he was killed after three days of sustained gun attack on his palace, The Gbewa Palace, in Yendi.

The NDC then in opposition promised to set up a commission to investigate and apprehend perpetrators of the act.

But the Presidential Commission was not set up to reopen the investigations. Instead, some 9 people were rounded up and charged before court, after a dawn swoop one faithful day. They too have been acquitted and discharged by the court for lack of merit.