Prime News Ghana

Five arrested in connection with Mankessim clashes that killed BNI official 

By Justice Kofi Bimpeh
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Five persons have been arrested by the police in connection with clashes at Mankessim that killed two including a BNI official.

Police in the area said they are on a manhunt for others believed to have caused the chaos in the area on Saturday.

Reports indicate that there is heavy police presence at Mankessim today, Sunday, December 8.

Clashes

An official of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and another person yet to be identified have died amid renewed chieftaincy clashes in Mankessim.

Five other persons have sustained various degrees of injuries and four of them are receiving treatment at the Mercy Women's Catholic Hospital.

READ ALSO : BNI official killed in Mankessim chieftaincy clash

One of them, a police officer, is receiving treatment in the regional capital at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.

According to reports, both fatalities and the injuries came from gunshots from the two feuding factions.

The rivals to the Mankessim stool attempted to install a new Queen Mother Saturday but the other faction got wind of the plot, leading to clashes, the reporter said.

Police are unable to tell which faction killed the BNI official and the civilian but five persons have been arrested in relation to the clashes.

The Mankessim chieftaincy dispute, according to reports is over two decades old.

Saturday’s clashes come in the wake of many legal battles involving the two factions. In 2010, there was a motion filed by one Abeka Kuntu and two others of at the Swedru High Court.

The suit sought to restrain the chief, Osagyefo Amanfo Adu VI and the Queen Mother, Nana Amba Amissah III from holding themselves as such.

In an affidavit, the claimants said the chief and the Queen Mother were not the rightful occupant of the stools.

They contend they are not descendants of Oburmankoma, Odapagyan and Oson, their leaders who led them from Techiman in the Brong East Region to their present settlement at Mankessim.

There have been several attempts to settle the matter before the judicial committee of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, the reporter narrated.