Police arrest five due to chieftaincy title-linked tensions in Bawku

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ANGOLA PRISON, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 14, 2013: A prisoner's hands inside a punishment cell wing at Angola prison. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South" and "The Farm" is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named Angola after the former plantation that occupied this territory, which was named for the African country that was the origin of many enslaved Africans brought to Louisiana in slavery times. This is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States[with 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance, and wardens. It is located on an 18,000-acre (7,300 ha) property that was previously known as the Angola Plantations and bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

Police have arrested at least five people at Bawku in Ghana’s Upper East region, officials said, after sporadic gunshots forced authorities to lockdown in the municipality.

A ban on smock wearing was also announced as part of measures to deal with escalating tensions linked to chieftaincy disputes.

The suspects, according to the police would be put before the court in due course.

“We have arrested five people in connection with the chaos. We are interrogating them now and will give updates when we are done with investigations. We arrested them last night and investigations are ongoing,” he told Citi News.

On Tuesday, a curfew was placed on the Bawku Municipality from 4:00 pm to 6:00 am after a shooting incident.

“The imposition of the curfew has been as a result of the threat of insecurity in the communities concerned,” the Minister for the Interior said in a statement.

Although the police say calm had returned to the area, security has been reinforced pointing to a planned reprisal attacks.

Chieftaincy disputes continue to threaten the peace enjoyed by indigenes in Northern Ghana. Experts have questioned the government’s commitment to deal with such matters.

Source: dailymailgh