With a few days to the enskinment of a new Yagbonwura in the Gonja Kingdom, the Savannah Regional Chairman of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Iddrisu Sulemana, has called on all Gonjas not to allow outsiders to infiltrate Kagbanye (descendants of Nedwura Jakpa) but to continue to embrace peace and show loyalty to the skin.

According to him, some individuals who were nowhere close to the Kingdom nearly marred the seventh-day funeral rites of the late King, Yagbonwura Sulemana Tuntumba Bore Essa I all in the name of culture but his timely intervention, normalised the situation to the admiration of the security agencies present.

The NPP Chairman said this during a press briefing at his residence in Damongo in the Savannah Region. He added that some local warriors wanted to take advantage of the culture of the area and abuse everything, including protocol and create insecurity.

“What happened at the Palace, was very unfortunate and many of you saw how I quickly stepped in and foiled the situation. If I had allowed officialdom to do that, the same people would read meanings into it. But must we say in the name of culture, people should come and create problems for us and go away? no!

“You might not have seen the real plans by these Guys and the things they were armed with, but let me tell you, everyone was seated, and they (local warriors from Tamale) started firing indiscriminately, nowhere but in the centre stage moving towards the President and when the security people wanted to stop them, they wanted to misbehave. So I stepped in to stop them from carrying out their diabolic plans,” Alhaji Sulemana stated.

Professor Kalmonia, as he is affectionately called, however, commended his counterpart from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Seidu Imoro for his show of maturity and leadership on the occasion.

He said some people wanted to mislead the NDC Chairman into supporting their acts but, “when I called my brother and explained to him, quickly, he understood and together, the situation was brought under control to the admiration of the crowd.”

He said having known the leader of the group that staged the act, “the moment he recognised me when I called on them to cease fire, everything went off and they obeyed and left the scene.”

Alhaji Iddrisu Sulemana appealed to all and sundry to try and be each other’s keeper as the culture and tradition promote peace and development and not destruction.

The enskinment of a Yagbonwura in Gonja is slated for Sunday, 19th March 2023 at Nyange in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region.