I’m innocent – Defense Minister

Minister for Defense, Dominic Nitiwul has debunked reports that he is using his position to aid his Konkomba tribe mates to fight the Chokosis in the ongoing Konkomba-Chokosi conflict.

He was accused of being complacent in the raging tribal conflict between Konkombas and Chokosis in the North East Region.

He says he is not using the military to back his tribesmen, Kokombas against the Chokosis in the renewed clashes.

There appeared to be no end in sight to the protracted conflict between these two groups which have been at each other’s throat over a piece of land. Not even a passionate appeal by President Akufo-Addo, during his tour of the North East region, to the feuding factions could compel them to lay down their arms and solve their differences amicably.

In less than a day after the President’s departure from the region, the clashes renewed where the feuding locals restrained themselves from farming on the disputed land.

Some of the locals have accused the Defense Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, of been bias towards the Chokosi tribe since he belongs to the Kokomba tribe.

However, speaking in an interview with the press at the sidelines of a mediation effort to bring peace between the feuding factions in the region, Dominic Nitiwul indicated that he is totally innocent of the accusations.

He stated that he was being accused wrongly just on the suspicion that he is a Kokomba and in charge of the military and therefore he is using the military to support the fight.

He questioned why people would blame him for the conflict just because he is from the same tribe as one of the factions in this conflict.

“Because I am a Kokomba, I am guilty by accusation. I am a Kokomba and therefore I must be guilty and nothing else. The man is guilty because he is a Kokomba man. So when the Ashanties are fighting, Napo must be the one fueling it. May be when the Akyim’s are fighting, then it should be the President. That kind of thinking doesn’t make any meaning to me,” he fumed.

However, some security experts have expressed the view that the Defense Minister ought to recuse himself from any mediation process in this conflict because of the perceived bias allegation expressed against him.

The Minister has spent the last four days in the region trying to bring the feuding factions to the table to fashion an amicable solution out of the conflict for peace to prevail.