Eight persons to appear in court over Ablekuma chieftaincy riot
Eight persons, including two chiefs, are to appear before a circuit court in Accra, following last Saturday’s chieftaincy violence at Ablekuma, a suburb of Accra.
They have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime, rioting with offensive weapons, and rioting.
When the suspects arrived at the court premises under heavy security escort, the judges were said to be attending a seminar in Accra.
The suspects were sent back to police cells to reappear before the court tomorrow.
The two chiefs are Nii Kweku Fosu III, 56, and Nii Larbie Mensah, 67, and the other suspects are Nii Adjin Kofi, 67, Asafoatse Abeka Abbey, 49, and secretary to Nii Larbi Mensah, Mustapha Adjin Tetteh, 42, Nii Kotey Nartey, 58, Ebenezer Ayeh, 50, and Fatau Mohammed, 19.
On Saturday August 25, chieftaincy clash erupted at Ablekuma, claiming three lives and three others sustaining injuries and were in critical conditions at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra.
The Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Cephas Arthur, said loyalists of two claimants to the Ablekuma stool engaged in shooting and arson last Saturday whilst marking the Homowo festival.
He said that when the police went to the scene, they saw that the palace of one of the claimants, Nii Kweku Fosu, had been vandalized, blood stains, two vehicles burnt down, 64 used cartridges, one live cartridge, and nine used 9-millimeter ammunition and four live ammunitions.
DSP Arthur said police preliminary investigations revealed that Nii Kweku Fosu and his supporters first performed the traditional rites of sprinkling a special dish, Kpokpoi, and returned to the chief’s palace.
DSP Arthur said when members of Nii Larbi Mensah’s faction, went to sprinkle Kpopoi, they came under gunfire allegedly from the opposing group, and the Nii Mensah’s group returned fire.
Source: GNA