Calm Returns to Atulibabisi

By Samuel Akapule

Calm has returned to Atulibabisi in the Bolgatanga municipality, in the Upper East Region, after the security agencies on Tuesday avert a bloodbath, following sporadic gunshots by the youth of the two gates of the Bolgatanga chieftaincy divide.

The police and military have restored peace to the area, and banks, shops, mobile money facilities and markets had been opened.

The main roads leading to the commercial centre of Bolgatanga that were blocked have also been opened, but there was heavy police and military presence in Atulibabisi and the nearby communities.

The Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Redeemer Vincent Dedjo, disclosed these in an interview with the Ghanaian Times.

He assured the residents of the area that the security agencies were on top of the situation, and entreated the people freely go about their normal duties.

The Regional Police Commander said that some arrests had been made and investigations are ongoing, but he did not disclose the number of people and names of those arrested.

DCOP Dedjo warned that the security agencies would not sit down unconcerned and allow a few miscreants to undermine peace in the municipality.

Information gathered by the Ghanaian Times from the police indicated that the youth from one of the gates (name withheld) opposed the leadership of the other gates of the skin, from construction, renovation and expansion of a building in the area.

It would be recalled that controversy rocked the Bolgatanga Skin, in 2015, when two persons were enskinned at two separate ceremonies, both claiming legitimacy to the title of Bolga Naba.

Whilst Mr. Raymond Alafia Abilba, was installed as the new Bolga Naba in Bolgatanga, by some sub-chiefs and elders, Naba Abeka Noge Buuri Maltinga, was also enskinned as the Bolga Naba, by the Nayiri, Naa Bohagu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga, at Nalerigu, in the Northern Region.

Owing to the disturbances in Bolgatanga, there had been a combined team of police and military personnel patrolling the area, including the palace of Mr. Raymond Alafia Abilba.

Both parties are claiming rightful accession to the skin, after the demise of the late Martin Abilba III, in September, 2013.

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