Seven-member Committee To Probe Hohoe Disturbances

The government has set up a seven-member committee to investigate the conflict that erupted between the Gbi State and the Zongo community of Zongo in Hohoe in the Volta Region on June 11, 2012. The committee, which is to be chaired by a high court judge, will be inaugurated after pacification rites have been performed at Hohoe. The committee will be made up of two representatives of the Gbi State, one each from the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Catholic Secretariat, the National Chief Imam and the security services. The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Henry Ford Kamel, announced this at Hohoe on Tuesday when he visited the Gbi State to find out from the chiefs and elders the date set for the pacification rites to be performed. Mr Kamel, who was accompanied by the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr Henry Ametefe, and heads of the various security agencies, said the government had decided to step in to identify the causes of the conflict in order to seek ways to address the problems to ensure lasting peace in the area. The committee was being chaired by a High Court Judge, but declined mentioning his or her name until the day it would be inaugurated. The regional minister also announced that the two victims who lost their lives in the conflict would be given a befitting burial by the state, adding that one of the police men who allegedly shot the victims had been identified and will be arraigned before court very soon. He said the Public Works Department (PWD) had verified all properties destroyed during the conflict including the residence of Togbega Gabusu VI, the Paramount Chief of the Gbi State and the results would be made known for the necessary action to be taken. Mr Kamel said Hohoe, a commercial capital and a booming centre in the Volta Region, would not be allowed to die and that all efforts were being made to revitalise the town. He called on the chiefs and people to make the resuscitation effort a success. On the curfew imposed on the area, he said it was not a measure to punish the people unduly but to rather protect lives and property. Mr Kamel said if the people complied with the curfew diligently it would be lifted earlier. However, he said, it was still being reviewed and advised the people not to do anything to disrupt the peace. The regional minister reminded them that the University of Allied Health and Sciences would soon be inaugurated and that students from all over the country would be coming there to undertake various programmes and stressed the need to ensure that peace prevailed in the state. Togbe Worde IV, chief of Gbi Kpeme and spokesman of the Gbi State assured the regional minister and his entourage that they would ensure that peace prevailed in the area. He said the date for the performance of the pacification rites had been rescheduled and that the regional coordinating council would be duly informed on the new date. He gave the assurance that Hohoe was still the commercial capital of the region as commercial activities were still going on as usual.