Four community leaders at Joma, near Ablekuma in Accra, have been picked up by the police to help in investigations into the gruesome murder of the chief of the town.

Nii Ayittey Noyatse, the Joma Mantse, was shot and killed by unidentified assailants in his room on Monday.

Those arrested include a rival chief, Nii Solomon Aya Ayii, and the Zongo Chief of Joma, Sariki Moses.

The Chief Linguist of the community, Nii Ayikoi Ayeh, and an elder, Nii Sipi,who are reported to have gone to the house of the chief on Monday morning for a court appointment, are also being interrogated by the Odorkor Police.

Briefing journalists, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said police investigations would focus on land guards, relatives and rivals of the deceased.

He pointed out that the issue of land guards was prominent in the area.

“When the people recruit these land guards, they give the land guards weapons and with time the land guards become powerful and turn against them,” he said.

He also stated that the police suspected “an insider” who could be a close relation and also rivals in the community.

He urged the public to provide any form of information that could help the police in their investigations for a reward.

Mr Yohuno assured the public that the perpetrators would be brought to book.

When the Daily Graphic visited the palace of the deceased, family members and sympathisers in mourning clothes had gathered.

The mother of the deceased, Rebecca Laryea, who could not control her tears, said she was called about 6 a.m. on Monday that her son had been found dead in his room.

“I was told that two men had come to call him to go with them to court over a land litigation issue, but after they had called several times and he was not responding, one of the children went to the window and found it slightly open,” she said.

According to her, when the child peeped through the window, he found the intestines of the chief gushed out and cried for help.

The father of the late Joma Chief, Pastor John Ayi Okai, suspected that his son had been shot over land issues, as he had been threatened on a number of occasions by land guards in the area.

“Since he was made chief about three years ago, his life had been threatened on a number of occasions by land guards,” he said.