The President of the Youth Wing of the Abudu Gate of Dagbon in the Northern Region, Alhaji Mogisu Sibawey, has expressed the hope that a meeting with the committee of eminent chiefs scheduled for Sunday in Kumasi will be the last in the search for peace for Dagbon and pave the way for the final funeral rites of the late Ya Na Mahamadu Abdulai. According to Sibawey, the meeting with the Committee, led by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is to be jointly attended by representatives of the Abudu and Andani families primarily to deliberate on the funeral of the late chief whose burial has been pending for ages. “We always have respect for the committee so we will honour their invitation, and I pray and I hope that this would be the last meeting for the Ya Na Abdulai Mahamadu’s funeral and I pray that the outcome of the meeting would be positive…,” Sibawey told Citi FM in Accra. The two families claiming rights to the Gbewa Palace in Dagbon have had a chequered co-existence until the killing of the late Ya Na Yakubu Andani and a number of his elders in March, 2002, brought matters to a head. President Kufuor in 2006 appointed the committee of eminent chiefs to try and resolve the differences and to bring peace to the area. Deliberations of the committee have led to a considerable ease of tensions between the two sides, however, the burial and subsequent funeral arrangements for the late Ya Na Abdulai Mohammed remain a sore point between the two sides. While the Abudus demand that the funeral of Mahamadu Abdulai should be performed at the Gbewa Palace in consonance with customary practices for royals, the Andanis say his funeral cannot be held at the palace. Author: Isaac Yeboah