RE: Recent Clash Between Fulani Herdsmen And People Of Kandiga, Doba People Disassociate Themselves

PRESS RELEASE SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHTRE: RECENT CLASH BETWEEN FULANI HERDSMEN AND PEOPLE OF KANDIGA, DOBA PEOPLE DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES

The attention of the Kandiga Traditional Council and the good people of Kandiga has been drawn to a fictitious, frivolous and vexatious publication making the rounds on the above subject. Not only is the statement an embarrassment on the Chief and people of Doba, but it also brutally exposes their hidden evil agenda against the people of Kandiga which has led to this unfortunate conflict.

In the said error infested and factually inaccurate publication, the Doba people accused the people of Kandiga of engaging in a bloody clash with Fulani herdsmen. They went on to accuse the people of Kandiga of attacking them following that clash and claims they have no knowledge about it.

One Mr Clement Anontarah who is said to have presented the statement, made references to a Court ruling which supposedly gave ownership of the disputed portion of land to the people of Doba. He went on to refer to some historical antecedents that in their wildest imagination, makes them the rightful owners of the said portion of land.

This and many more, were contained in the publication.Even though the people of Kandiga do not take delight in running commentary in the media regarding happenings in relation to this conflict, we find it prudent to provide proper accounts to lay to rest the falsehoods that have been continuously peddled by the Doba people to sway people into accepting their side of the narrative. Specifically, on the incident that they referenced in the publication.

It is recalled that, on the 16th of June 2022, a Kandiga man who had migrated to settle in Kologo, a neighboring community, was murdered in cold blood. The story of his murder was published on www.ghanaweb.com and www.ghananewsprime.com. The murder of the man was carried out by Doba people who had persistently accused the man of allowing Kandiga people to hide in his house and carry out attacks against them.

The Doba people who were bent on finding fault with the man so that they can harm him or have him banished from Kologo land, again accused him of stealing cattle belonging to Doba people. The matter was reported to the Chief and the Tindana of Kologo. These traditional leaders of Kologo after a painstaking investigation, exonerated the man from all the accusations.

The Kologo Chief and his Tindana then proceeded to amicably resolve the matter between the Doba accusers and the helpless Kandiga man. They actually admonished the Doba people to stop harassing the man on their soil since Kologo was not a party to the conflict. While this was happening, the Doba people repeatedly carried out attacks against the people of Kandiga.

One of such attacks was repressed by the timely intervention of the military. The blood-tasty Doba people after failing to achieve their goal proceeded to the man’s house in Kologo and murdered him.

Evidence abound to support this account. The Fulani herdsmen are ready to speak, the Kologo Chief and his Tindana are also available to corroborate to our narration as well as the family of the man are also prepared to tell it all.

Now, on the issue of the Court ruling which they referenced; they either did so out of sheer ignorance of the Court System or they deliberately want to throw dust into the eyes of the public.

The said Court case has not been concluded! It is in the Appeals Court and so they cannot portray it as though the people of Kandiga have refused to obey an order by a Court. That is complete falsehood being peddled by the Doba people.

We are law abiding and have always resorted to using legal means to achieving what we seek. We refrain from providing details of the appeal case since the case is still in process. Again, the Chief of Doba and his people in the statement, engaged in distortion of historical facts knowing that, the full historical narration will expose them.

Why did they decline to refer to the popular ruling of the late Navoro Pio, P3 Dr. Adda Balinia I, at his Palace in the 70s which recognized the River Anayere as the boundary between Kandiga and Doba?

The late Catholic Bishop, Most Rev. Bishop Rudolph Akanlu played a key role in that particular matter and the subsequent ruling by the then Navrongo Chief. May his soul continue to rest well. Or maybe the current Navoro Pio who has been part of most engagements on this renewed conflict failed to remind them of same? The Navoro Pio we know will not want the pronouncements of his predecessor set aside when there has not been counter action to warrant so.

We pray he does that now if he has not done so yet. We want to state emphatically that, the portion of land in dispute belongs to Kandiga. It is our ancestral land which Kandiga people have lived and farmed on without any arguments with anybody.

To prove this point, the Kandiga Tindana has challenged the Doba Tindana to meet him at the river side for them to “drink the soil water” (a traditional rite performed to determine the true owner of a land).

We have made this known to the Tindana of Doba and his people at every opportunity that we were provided to make proposals for an amicable resolution of the conflict. We stated this at the Justice Atuguba Committee, at the Regional House of Chiefs’ meeting and also at the Bolga High Court.

Unfortunately, the Doba Tindana has declined this opportunity which would put the matter on who owns the land to rest.It is instructive to state that, the people of Doba know very well that, the land doesn’t belong to them.

But because they have for the past had some power players who thought that, helping Doba to annex that portion of Kandiga will inure to their selfish interest, mainly caused this conflict which is claiming lots of innocent souls.

The Dobas are not oblivious of the repercussions that will befall their Tindana and the entire community if they dared “drink the soil water” on a land which does not belong to them.

And this has been the sole reason why they have resorted to violent attacks on Kandiga while refusing to submit for the traditional rites to be performed. As for the legal gymnastics being employed by the Doba people to forcibly claim our land it is another matter to be addressed another day.

It is also worth mentioning that, all the attacks that have killed many people were carried out by Doba people.

Indeed, they have admitted in the release to being the aggressors and Kandiga people merely respond in self-defense.

Isn’t it revealing that, they are accusing the military of being biased?!! And that is because the military were mostly proactive to abort some of their planned attacks on Kandiga people. We the people of Kandiga have not at any point attacked Doba, that must be stated unequivocally.

The reverse is always the case.Surprisingly, these people who believe that portion of land belongs to them and have always attacked and killed people are the same people who run to the media to accuse Kandiga people of attacking them.

Maybe someone should be advising them to give peace a chance since we, Kandiga people, will always rise to defend ourselves anytime that they attack us.

Lastly, we want to remind our neighbours, Doba people to be content with their own land which ends at the Anayere river.

It is on that land alone that they can work to develop themselves. Same way, the schools, health facility, the Kandiga Junction mini market, boreholes, electricity and many more were initiated on the now disputed land by Kandiga people and some of them were either undertaken or supported by the people of Kandiga.

So it will be insane on the part of Doba people to suddenly want to drive Kandiga people out of a land that our ancestors have bestowed to us and we have toiled so hard to develop.

That can only happen in horror dreams!

We want to call on the media, @gbcnews @A1radionews, www.ghanaweb.com and the rest who were misled to publish the concocted story to as a matter urgency correct the error. We also want to call on the Navoro Pio to demonstrate neutrality in the matter to help find amicable solution to the problem.

In the meantime, we call on him, the Navoro Pio to call the Doba people to order and advise them to submit themselves for the traditional rites of “drinking the soil water”.

We believe that, the gods of our lands cannot be manipulated like human institutions to miscarry justice. And if the Doba Chief, Tindana and their subjects cannot prevail for this simple but all important rite, then they should desist from trespassing and also attacking and killing innocent people.We on our part, remain committed to working towards building peace between the two communities. But for the selfish interest of some evil individuals, this conflict would not have happened in the first place.

Long live Asia-Kandiga! Long live Ghana!

End.

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