Government has vowed to preserve the nation’s peace and security by dealing decisively with all manner of conflicts, including those of an ethnic nature.

Speaking at Kokoligu in the Nandom Municipality of the Upper West Region on January 1, the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, said efforts are being made to restore calm in the regional capital.

“We are determined to protect the status quo. So, therefore, I am disturbed when I see anything that is ethnic-based [because] the ethnic groups have existed peacefully over the years, and we do not want any division in the North or indeed any part of the country.”

“Mamprusis and Kusasis have co-existed in the Bawku area, and other parts of the country, and nothing should be done to disturb that cordial relationship.”

Ambrose Dery said the government has no interest in who becomes the chief of an area but is bent on maintaining the peace of such areas.

“I want to advise all those who want to call themselves youth associations or various organisations to know that this is a state where the rule of law must be respected.

“We are all equal before the law, and no one is above the law, and nobody will be allowed to take the law into his or her own hands and make this country ungovernable.”

He urged the warring factions to use legitimate means to resolve the conflict rather than resort to arms or violence.

“If you have a chieftaincy matter, go to the traditional institutions, traditional council, and judicial councils of the regional houses of chiefs, National House of Chiefs and from them, to the Supreme Court,” he added.

Mr Dery’s comments follow the recent chieftaincy clashes that claimed the lives of some residents in the area.

Through an Executive Instrument, the Interior Ministry has placed a curfew on the Bawku and its adjoining communities to restrict movement from 8 pm to 8 am daily.

Meanwhile, the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Minister, Ebenezer Kojo Kum, has called on proponents to install a new Bawku Naba to desist from such actions.

He insisted the Supreme Court has settled the status of the Paramount Chief of Bawku; thus, until the Apex court set aside its initial pronouncement, the decision is binding to all and sundry.

“The status of the Paramount Chief of Bawku has been settled by the Supreme Court of Ghana in the celebrated case in April 2003,” a statement dated December 29, 2021, said.