TAFO VIOLENCE: THREE DECLARED WANTED

 

The Ashanti Regional Police Command has declared three persons wanted for arrest for their unspecified roles in the violence that plagued the Tafo township in the Kumasi metropolis. 

They are Garu, Fulani and Nurudeen. 

 The Palace also remains heavily fortified with security presence a day after the violence following threats by the violent residents to behead the chief, Nana Agyen Frimpong. 

At about 10 am yesterday, violence erupted among a section of the residents  of the Tafo township in the Kumasi metropolis following the demolition of a fence wall built around the portion of the Tafo public cemetery supposedly allocated to the Zongo community in the metropolis to bury their loved ones. 

The irate youth mainly from the Zongo community of Tafo allegedly physically attacked the chief of Tafo, Nana Agyen Frimpong and his elders who were strolling that portion of the disputed portion of the cemetery and subsequently inflicted injuries on them. 

The aggrieved residents accused Nana Agyen Frimpong of authorizing the demolition of the fence wall last           Saturday. 

The Zongo community is claiming that a late chief of Tafo in 1930 allocated that portion of the cemetery to them as the final resting place of members of the Islamic faith. 

However, they realized that lately private developers are encroaching their portion of the cemetery and therefore  fenced it. 

Nana Agyen Frimpong has however disputed the claims by the Zongo community and therefore, in pursuance to tradition, invoked the great ancestral Oath on them to compel them to produce any documentary evidence to back their claim.

 This is what rather incensed the youth who allegedly visited physical assaults on the chief and his elders. 

From that point, the mob kept increasing getting to a size of about 300 members who decided to attack any person or thing in sight for destruction. 

Property ranging from vehicles, restaurants, drinking spots and a Rural Bank were all severely damaged in the process. 

They also burnt lorry tyres at portions of the main road within the township and mounted road blocks at the two entry points rendering the road impassable while motorists who ply the busy Tafo terminal deserted the place for safety. 

An unspecified number of person also sustained various degrees of injuries. 

At the premises of the Tafo branch of the Atwima Kwanwoma Rural Bank, the mob tried to invade the banking hall which the police man on guard resisted.

 After their refusal to flee after warning shots were fired, the Police man was compelled to shoot two of them who were rushed to hospital for emergency care. 

The intervention by a team of police and Security helped to calm tempers a bit.

 There was no arrest made for what the police describe as strategic reasons.

 The Assembly Man for Tafo, Emmanuel Afoakwa appeared very disturbed about the situation and asked for measures to avert a reprisal attack.

 The Chief Linguist of the chief of Tafo, Nana Owusu Achiaw Brempong narrated the side of the chief and elders of the towns. 

A leader of the Muslim community at Tafo, Alhaji Mumuni Atia even though was not happy about the demolition of the fence wall around the Muslims’ cemetery, expressed regret about the violence. 

Later in the day, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander declared three persons wanted for police arrest for their unspecified contributions to the violence.