News

OPINION: The True Story of the Immediate Cause of the Renewed Ethnic Violence in Cheriponi as Against the Falsehood Reported by Some Media Houses

• By EDMOND GYEBI
• May 21, 2019
• 27

Eye brows raised on the media reportage on the ongoing renewed ethnic violence between Anufos and Konkomba in Cheriponi. Some renowned media houses in Ghana and the District police commander for Saboba have reported falsehood on the immediate cause of the conflict.

The District commander was heard on air reporting that the immediate cause was about fishing which was totally false.
The true story of the renewed clash are that: On Saturday May 18, 2019, it was reported that the debris of the land cleared by Konkomba of Tumbu community to farm was set on fire, but by then most of the community members had gone to another community called Liwalbu where the funeral rite of a late relative was ongoing but because of the insecurity in the area, the few people left in the community were scared to trace up to the farm to find out what was happening.

Those at the funeral grounds were therefore called to be informed of the suspicious burning of their cleared farm debris by unknown people, the people mobilized themselves upon returning to the community and went to the farm to ascertain those people burning their cleared debris and to their surprise, armed Anufos were those behind the burning and upon seeing the farm owners opened gun fire on them dispersing the people.

The farm owners ran home to prepare and went for reprisal attack but the issue was immediately reported to the DISEC chairman and the DCE for Saboba: Hon. George Bingrini who immediately deployed the security in the District capital to the scene.

When the security got to the scene, the perpetrators of the act had bolted upon seeing the security but after the security personnel left the scene and the situation was under control, the Chokosis went to attack a community called Shegmado around 7:30 PM on the next day (Sunday May 19, 2019) after two consecutive attempts and finally set the community on fire on the third attempt.

This infuriated the residents of other nearby Konkomba communities to join forces in reprisal attacks leading to the exchange of gun fire battle between the two ethnic groups.
As of now, the reports indicate that, about ten communities have been set ablaze by both ethnic group fighters with some deaths.
An eye witness reports that the fight continues even though the security is present. The media houses in Ghana are therefore cautioned to be circumspect in reporting Conflict issues. Most of the media houses in Ghana are fond of reporting and spreading falsehood on issues of conflict. The attitude of some of these media houses portray their unprofessional and or bias in their reportage.

The Media houses that were supposed to be the authentic source of information now engages in snow balling and armed chaired reportage, in fact!
They now, report from the comfort of their rooms without any proper investigations. This attitude should be changed.
If they do not know the true story, they should investigate or not report at all because it is capable of igniting further problems as the general public is fed the wrong information.

Source: Abraham N. Nlenkiba