Police grab Bunkpurugu ‘talisman’ as many desert the area

Mannah Sambian

A man believed to possess some spiritual powers and a ringleader in the Bunkpurugu deadly family
clashes has been arrested by the police.

Mannah Sambian, 22, was arrested Friday evening and is currently being watched under police custody.

Over 30 houses have been torched in the renewed clashes in the Northern Regional township, leaving at least two people dead.

There has been a protracted chieftaincy dispute between the Jafok and Jamong families. The Ghana Police Service was forced to deploy a special force – the Anti-terrorist Unit - to quell the resurgence of the conflict there this week.

The police themselves have been a subject of attack from one of the families.


Due to the fluidity of the situation there, the Commander of the Anti-terrorist Unit, Superintendent Raymond Adofiem has directed his men to "identify threats and neutralize them”, TV3’s Zubaida Ismail reported.

Mannah Sambian was later arrested by the police after being identified as a troublemaker in the raging conflict.

The Jamongs are questioning the legitimacy of Abuba Nasimong, the Paramount Chief of Bunkpurugu. They claimed his enskinment was illegal.

Meanwhile, Zubaida Ismail reports that businesses within Bunkpurugu in the East Mamprugu Traditional Area and its environs have been seriously affected by the clashes.

Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, the once commercial district, for almost twelve months has virtually become a ghost town, she observed.

Shop owners have had to abandon their shops and fled the town for fear of losing their lives.

About 90 percent of the total population of Bunkpurugu are farmers whose livelihood depends on farm produce: mainly yams and groundnuts.

Farmers, however, in the last farming season could not farm as some farmers who attempted to farm got killed whilst working on their farms. This has made farming unsafe for residents.

Government has imposed curfew on the Bunkpurugu township.

SOURCE;Ghanawe.com