Wednesday, 5th February, 2025
Hon Geoffrey Kini
Nkwanta South
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to make this Statement on renewed clashes in my constituency in Nkwanta South, which have resulted in the loss of many precious lives.
As a third termer of this good House, I deem it extremely necessary and a duty to draw the attention of this august House to the renewed clashes so that, with your kind support, this recurring conflict can be permanently solved.
Mr Speaker, first and foremost, let me state that the constituency is a municipality in the Oti Region, recently carved out of water. The renewed clashes are between the Adelle’s, Akyode’s, Challa’s and a Muslim group in Nkwanta. The conflict happened as a result of a dispute over unclear land boundaries among the feuding factions and tribes.
Mr Speaker, may I use this occasion to report to the House that a total of 22 precious lives had been lost since 2022. And as I make this Statement, the entire township of Nkwanta has been deserted, turning their place into a ghost town.
Government institutions such as banks, schools, hospitals are not functioning fully, while general economic activities and social life has granted to a halt.
As most people have fled from the municipality to avoid further loss of lives and property, other forms of violence perpetrated by the various factions includes attack on farms, destruction of shops and burning of houses.
Mr Speaker, at this juncture, let me use this occasion to congratulate and to commend the security agencies, comprising the police, military, fire and the immigration officers, as well as National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), whose personnel were able to work tirelessly to restore law and order. May I also add that the continued presence of these security agencies has immensely contributed in subsiding their hostilities considerably.
It is my fervent prayer that the military will remain in the municipality for some time until calm is fully restored.
Mr Speaker, instead of applying peaceful means and dialogue to solve these misunderstandings, the factions have resorted to violence, resulting in the loss of innocent lives. Indeed, the conflict has taken a deep toll on the people and until total peace is restored, economic, social and educational activities cannot proceed in a normal way.
In finding a lasting solution to the conflict, let us do well to take into account all the various factors that directly or indirectly tend to fuel disputes at various places. This includes social exclusion or marginalisation, extreme politicisation of issues, lack of trust and suspicion of public officials by the different tribes. Let me add that a comprehensive approach which takes into account all the above factors is the surest way to resolve the conflict in Nkwanta South.
Mr Speaker, as the incumbent Member of Parliament of the constituency, I wish to pledge my fullest support and commitment to every effort that would be made to bring peace to the area. On my part, I have so far played a neutral role as a peacemaker by doing all in my power to apply communication to draw their attention to the urgent need for dialogue and the negative impact of violence on the constituency. In addition, I wish to request that a special committee be constituted by the appropriate authorities to critically and dispassionately delve into all the issues with the sole aim of finding a lasting solution.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would like to sympathise with the bereaved families, those who have lost their properties and are displaced and to plead with all factions to hang up their gloves, while efforts are being made to bring peace. I, therefore, call for support of charitable organisations to come to our aid.
Mr Speaker, I want to thank you, once again, for this opportunity.
Hon Kwadwo Damoah
Jaman South
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity given to me to contribute towards the Statement made by my Hon Friend from the other Side.
Mr Speaker, conflicts and disputes of all types are creating problems for all of us, and it behooves on all of us to try to find very lasting solutions to these conflicts. There are no conflicts with the same or similar ingredients.
They may vary from particular areas to others, so there may be peculiarities about some specific conflicts, and we need to delve so much into them to find the real root causes and the appropriate solutions to make sure that we find lasting solutions to these problems. As they keep recurring, they take different dimensions; their consequences are unimaginable, and the intended and unintended ones alike.
Mr Speaker, often times when these problems occur, instead of all of us, especially those directly in those conflict areas, coming together to find solutions to them, we tend to mix them up with other considerations such as, in some cases, political considerations and, once we bring politics into some of these matters, then they become intractable and difficult to resolve.
The case of Nkwanta, unfortunately, has been recurring and I am happy that our Brother, who is a Member of Parliament for that area, is bringing it to the fore of this Parliament for us to have a look at it and see how best we can resolve these disputes.
Mr Speaker, I know that they appreciate the efforts made by the security services, but the security services have a limit to what they can do. The disputing parties are the ones who really hold the key to the solutions to these problems. As long as they are prepared, willing and able to allow some of the tensions to calm down and have a spirit of forgiveness and tolerance, it becomes easier for the security services and other stakeholders to find solutions to these problems.
But, oftentimes, the problem occurs, we find ad hoc solutions to them, we try to manage the dispute in a manner that will appease some interest groups, and then, without getting to the root causes of the problems, they recur and we go in, once again, with the security services.
That may not help matters, so what may be useful in this context is to have some mediation efforts from people who may not be directly related to the conflict or may not have interest in the conflict, and then with the cooperation, assistance and preparedness of the parties involved to find solutions, we are better placed to do so.
Mr Speaker, he said a lot, and I believe he means well, but, on his own, probably, it will be difficult for him to find solutions to these problems. I have had an opportunity to visit the area when I was Commissioner for Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and I had the opportunity to learn about some of the challenges there. So, these are matters that when they start, it becomes very difficult to manage them.
Mr Speaker, in 1985, I was a very young man, a platoon commander, a lieutenant in the army, and we had the Kusasi-Mamprusi crisis for the first time in Bawku. I was one of the first officers sent there to manage the conflict. From 1985 to today, we still have that conflict.
So, I am just drawing the attention of the Members that once a conflict erupts, if we do not try hard to go to the basics to find the root causes of these problems and find objective means of resolving them, but we take sides. It then becomes very difficult to solve them, especially when partisan matters are mixed with customary, land and other matters are involved.
It becomes difficult for us to intervene because we would be thinking about the votes that we may get from one side. If we are not careful, we then become victims and are unable to offer very pragmatic and objective solutions to the problems and challenges of the area.
I sympathise with my Brother, and I hope that all of us would take this matter as a serious one and find a lasting solution to that problem. Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Hon Helen Adjoa Ntoso
Krachi West
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this heartbreaking Statement made by Mr Geoffrey Kini, MP for Nkwanta South Constituency.
Mr Speaker, like the Hon Member from the other Side said, this conflict started about 30 years ago when I was a border patrol officer in Nkwanta. When the conflict started, it was between two tribes: the Akyodes and the Challas.
There were no killings about 15 years ago. But of late, what has happened is that, anytime there was this conflict, when a person from another tribe is killed, then that tribe joins the conflict. So, initially, it was between the Akyodes and the Challas. An Adelle man was killed, then the Adelles joined. Recently, a Muslim was killed, then the Muslims joined.
We need to actually look at the actors of this conflict: the primary actors, those who are involved in the conflict; the secondary actors who have interest; and the others who hide behind the conflict to execute these killings, and they are the shadow actors. In every conflict, the shadow actors are more dangerous than the people who are involved in the conflict.
What is happening is that when this conflict began and people were arrested, no proper investigations were done and the culprits were left unpunished and that is why this continues.
Mr Speaker, the people within the Nkwanta Constituency are farmers, and, now, people are afraid to go to their farms. It is also another commercial centre when it comes to marketing. The Nkwanta Market is a very big market with market days being Mondays and Tuesdays.
Mr Speaker, unless we actually look at what to do about the shadow actors who are hiding behind this conflict and deal with them, this conflict in Nkwanta would never end. I want to say that, as a result of this conflict, the District Assembly is struggling.
The MP has put his personal resources in giving relief items to the victims. Last year, when this conflict started, almost half of the items that were meant to given to flood victims, were given to these conflict victims. So, there is a backlog of flood victims who have not received their items.
Just last week, the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) complained that they have run out of resources for even these conflict victims. The District Assembly has also run out, and they cannot even generate funds from their internally generated funds (IGF).
So, the time has come for the National Peace Council and all stakeholders to come together to adopt a more proactive reconciliation or peacemaking approach, so that Nkwanta would, once again, be a peaceful place for the people to go about their normal activities.
Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity.
Hon Worlase Kpeli
Kwahu Afram Plains
Mr Speaker, thank you.
I rise to sympathise with my senior Colleague from Nkwanta, and I want to speak on this subject matter passionately because, as a country, in my view, we are mostly interested in curative measures rather than the preventive measures that would not put us into such situations.
We cannot talk about indigenous conflicts in Ghana when we leave out land and land boundaries. Travelling somewhere in Africa, land administration system alone has been able to cure a lot of conflicts among tribes. But, as a country, we are looking at a conflict which is a result of something, but we are not looking at what is causing that result.
When one looks at conflicts like Nkonya, Alavanyo, Peki and Tsito—All these conflicts are as a result of land disputes. If, as a country, we can put measures in demarcating clear boundaries of traditional areas within and among tribes, I think we would have been curing largely parts of the conflicts that would have been occurring today.
Mr Speaker, countries came to Ghana and then went into this land administration system and were able, through mediation and conciliation, set out boundaries that would have resulted into conflicts. Then, as a country, why should we wait for these conflicts to arise for us to be put in measures such as applying the security forces to cure the conflicts, while immediately the security forces move out, the conflicts come back again?
It is about time as we tried, as much as possible, cure the ones we see now. We should, as a House, bring out policies that would instill the kind of boundary disciplines we want to have among the people of Ghana, so as to cure this kind of conflict.
I would be glad if the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources would move into these areas as soon as possible and meet with the traditional leaders. For what I know about tradition, whatever is even spoiled can still be cured, and it becomes the tradition of the next generation. If we move in that, throughout the country, we would have solved a lot of conflicts.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
Hon Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah
Ho West
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker, I also rise to support the Statement made by my good Friend, Mr Kini, MP for Nkwanta South. Let me use this opportunity to commend the security services for the support they have given to that community.
Mr Speaker, we all know that this conflict at Nkwanta South is between three different communities or tribes; we have the Adelles, the Akyodes and the Challas all because of land. Land has been a source of conflict in many areas within and outside this country.
In my communities, which my Colleague has just mentioned, Tsito and Peki, has been in conflict for some time now, and it is all because of a piece of land. I believe that piece of land has gone through some form of litigation over the years with judgement given to one side or the other, and, currently, it is still at the Court of Appeal for determination.
Mr Speaker, I want to plead with any case concerning stool, family or traditional lands that have been with the court and that have not been litigated or resolved. Let us have a mechanism to resolve it as early as possible.
Let me also state that the cost of maintaining security services in a particular conflict zone is so huge. We cannot continue spending our taxpayer’s money just to resolve conflict in either land litigation or whatever.
The Member of Parliament mentioned that he has spent so much of his own resources because the assembly is not working. I believe my Colleagues from Pusiga, Bawku, and all these conflict areas have spent so much of their own resources. We need to have permanent solutions to some of these and I believe that apart from the mediation that we have all talked about and putting together committees that will resolve this, the resolution should come from the people themselves.
Why should someone claim ownership of the land, then another person also comes to say that they were there before the person? In some cases, it is not because someone was there before they came, it is all because somebody has married into a family and they decided to give their land to the person. When the children of that generation come up and they say they just married into this family and the land was just given to them to farm, but now they want the lands given back to them, it becomes conflict.
Mr Speaker, as I went up, I heard my Colleague, Mr Dafeamekpor, make a statement to the effect that a particular land, the Dededo land, where the Tsitos and Pekis have been fighting over has been a subject of litigation for all these years, and that it was originally for the Pekis. That infuriated my people and the whole Asafo troupe came up, made a press conference, and they were going to martial to Peki for another war again.
Sometimes, what our own political leadership say can also infuriate people.
So, I want to plead with all of us that when we are making Statements, we should be careful of what we say. Let us be factual in the things that we say. I thank you so much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Alexander Roosevelt Hottordze
Central Tongu
Mr Speaker, let me use the opportunity to thank the maker of the Statement and to also commend all others who have contributed to this Statement.
Mr Speaker, this Nkwanta conflict started around the 1970s till now. In the past when it began, what happened was that those in the conflict would travel to the courts in one vehicle, but there was no problem or violence. But as the years go by, things are getting worse and that is where we should be very careful.
Mr Speaker, the unfortunate situation is that with the years going by, it has now transcended to loss of lives and at this point, 22 lives have been lost. As we speak, when you get to Nkwanta, the place is like a cemetery because people are just afraid and a lot of them have fled. Schools and markets have remained closed, stores have been vandalised, and everybody is running helter-skelter for their dear life.
Mr Speaker, the implication of what is happening will be too dire to this nation. That is the more reason why it is important that we take urgent steps to make sure that the situation is nipped in the bud. As we speak now, the security forces are doing theirs on the ground. We only need to encourage them to step up their game while Government takes the necessary steps to bring finality to this particular conflict.
I thank you, Mr Speaker.
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