Bawku Chieftaincy Conflict: 119 lives lost during mediation process – Prez Mahama reveals
President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that about 119 people lost their lives during periods of violence while mediation efforts were ongoing to resolve the protracted Bawku chieftaincy conflict.
Addressing the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs during its courtesy call at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, February 10, President Mahama expressed deep concern about the destruction caused by the conflict, noting that it has had severe impacts on peace, stability, and national cohesion.
“While the mediation was ongoing, there was violence and killings. It’s estimated that about 119 people lost their lives during the period of the mediation. But thank God, ultimately, his report came out,” President Mahama stated.
He emphasized that failure to strictly follow the established rules of succession has fueled tensions and violence, leading to “needless loss of lives,” and stressed that such conflicts continue to undermine efforts to maintain peace in affected communities across the country.
Recounting the mediation process, President Mahama explained that the Otumfuo Committee, chaired by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, was established by former President Akufo-Addo, to help find a traditional resolution to the conflict.
“The Otumfuo Committee was established by my predecessor, Nana Akufo-Addo. In his handing-over notes, he mentioned to me that he had invited Otumfuo to mediate in the conflict. As his successor, I was duty-bound to allow that mediation to go on,” President Mahama explained, adding that the mediation was intended to arrive at a traditional settlement that will allow the parties to coexist peacefully.
He however explained that the process failed to produce the expected outcome, forcing a recourse to the law.
“Once it didn’t happen, the mediator had no option but to revert to what the law says. His report basically stated what the lawful position was,” he stated.
President Mahama clarified that as someone who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of Ghana, he cannot allow personal feelings to influence the implementation of the law, regardless of the sensitivities involved.
“I cannot be sentimental in terms of implementing the law. Everybody knows what the law says, the truly gazetted Chief of Bawku Naba is Naba Abugrago Azoka. That is what the law says. He is gazetted,” Prez Mahama said. “I cannot have somebody who is not gazetted come and say, ‘I am the Bawku Naba too.’”
“I have to do what I have to do to ensure peace in Bawku, which is what we have done. The law is the law,” he added.
The Bawku conflict is a decades-old chieftaincy and ethnic dispute primarily between the indigenous Kusasi and the settler Mamprusi communities in the Upper East Region. The dispute, dating back to 1931, revolves around the occupancy of the Bawku skin and traditional authority over the area.
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