The suspected land guards arrested
A dawn chieftaincy clash at Teshie, an Accra suburb, yesterday claimed the life of a certain 29-year-old Kofi, from Jamestown and left many others injured.
Property worth thousands of Ghana cedis, including a newly constructed Chief Palace, belonging to the Ashitey and Ashikwei We, were destroyed in the mayhem.
One of the factions in the long-standing chieftaincy dispute, allegedly, engaged land guards to provide security for the installation of a rival chief, an action which led to a clash between them and some local youth.
Seven suspected land guards have been arrested and are assisting the police in their investigations.
Angry youth belonging to Nii Ashitey and Nii Ashikwei We were said to have clashed with the eight suspected land guards, who wielded guns and machetes.
They were said to have been hired by Tserebi Ashitey We to provide security for the installation of Navy Captain Nii Ashitey (rtd) as chief of Teshie Maami.
DEAD! and COMATOSE!
Suspects Nii Armah Ojidi, 35, from Teshie, Robert Quaye, 21, Akpo, 20, Okanta Abbey, 28, Eric Narh, 25, Baba Talatu 25 Nii Ishmael Anor, 45, are all in police custody.
The Accra Regional Police Command PRO, DSP Freeman Tettey, who briefed the media at the scene soon after the incident, said police received information around 6:15am yesterday that there had been a clash between some youths of the area and land guards from Jamestown who were hired by the Tserebi We to provide security for the installation of Nii Ashitey Kamoah III known in private life as Captain Ashitey.
One person was found dead while others got injured as a result of the clash, he added.
Continuing, he said the police managed to arrest seven of the land guards who were later taken to the police station for questioning.
Two of the arrested persons who got injured as a result of the clash were sent to the Police Hospital for treatment by the police, he told the media.
Information gathered later suggested that one Nii Okai Tanji, a member of the Tserebi Ashitey We hired the boys from Jamestown to provide security for the installation of the new chief.
“Police are currently at the scene to maintain peace,” he assured.
A certain Theophilus Nii Armah Asahai, a youth leader in the area, told DAILY GUIDE that there had been a chieftaincy dispute in the area since the death of the then chief of the area, the late Nii Akonfra III in 1984 who belonged to the Nii Ashikwei We clan.
He said In the 60s their fathers, led by Nii Akonfra III, gave a portion of their land to the Tserebi Ashitey We to settle on.
Following the 1979 coup, the Tserebi We used military influence to usurp the chieftaincy position and to forcefully build their family house in the traditional area.
The family, which migrated from Nungua, then named themselves Tserebi Ashitey We even though they were not custodians of the stool and the land, he alleged.
DCOP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, who was at the scene, also told the paper that the police had secured a court order restraining the Tserebi We from going ahead to install their chief.
When the land guards stormed the area early yesterday, they first went to the newly constructed palace to vandalise the place before the youth of the area turned on them.
DCOP CT Yohuno urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used by others for their selfish ends.
In a related development, a stampede was averted at the St. John School in the area when parents rushed to the school to pick their kids upon hearing erroneously that an angry youth was setting the school ablaze.
The youth in the Teshie chieftaincy dispute were reported to have earlier besieged some schools in the area threatening to burn them down.
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