A Press Conference By Concerned Youth Of Fielimon To Set The Records Straight On A Petition By Some Nimoro Youth Tittled “Petition Against Political Interferances In A Land Dispute Between Nimoro (Buwaa) And Its Lobi-Dagaaba Settlers To The President Of T

22^ND June, 2016.
We the concerned Youth of Fielimon, acting in good faith and without any prejudice to any statutory entity, are propelled by our unending desire to seek social justice and straighten the twisted portion of history, wish to use this august platform as a conduit to respond to some empty accusations in an unpopular petition presented by a section of Nimoro Youth to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana through the Hon. District Chief Executive of the Sissala West District on 7^th May, 2016. Generally, the content of their petition is an incoherent pack of lies aimed at deceiving Ghanaians and the world at large. Now let us consider the specific issues raised in their petition:

The petitioners in their four page petition likened Fielimon to some so called settler communities of Hamile, Ejura, Kintampo and Aboabo. They further alleged that “Lobi-Dagarti” fled from a so called tyrannical leader called Dernyu and also from harsh French colonial administration to settle on Nimoro land in 1927/28.We wish to state emphatically that their claim is shamefully at variance with the historical antecedence of the Fielimon community. We wish to add that, there is no group of persons in Fielimon known as “Lobi-Dagarti”. The Dagaaba who are at the nucleus of the Fielimon community may have dialectical similarities with Lobis, but are a completely different group of persons. We wish to also add that Fielimon was founded by a number of Dagaaba families of various clans, led by a hunter by name WARME on a virgin forested land where they met no earlier settlers when they set upon the land on their arrival from NYEGO in the defunct Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) and other parts of the then Northern territories in about 1920 or earlier. As youth that have the fullest of respect for the rule of law and good faith in the judicial institutions and the justice adjudication processes within the country. We choose not to be insolent towards the Wa High Court, a court of competent jurisdiction, which is currently hearing the case to determine the legitimate owners of the Fielimon land. It is therefore “jaw dropping” that some Nimoro youth ruthlessly brushed off the honour of this competent court to declare themselves with impunity as allodial title owners of the disputed land.

In point two of their petition, they alleged of the registration of “Danikuu (Dargati), Issah Walla (Wala), Zato (Moshie) and Issaka Grushie (Grushie) as stranger settler headmen at Fielimuo” by the then Sissala District Government Agent. They alleged that, the said registration was in response to a Local Government Ministry circular issued on 16^th April, 1958 with reference number MLG.4900/109/SF.5/30 and titled “Recognition of Headmen of stranger communities”. We challenge the existence of such document, as far as we concerned that document is doubtful.

The petitioners in point three of their petition, made a blanket accusation of political “emasculation” of so called illiterate traditional rulers which they find inimical to Sissala natives of Nimoro but beneficial to a so called majority Lobi settlers on Nimoro Land. We deem this as a disdainful figment of their imagination which must be discarded with the alacrity that it deserves.
In point four of their petition, they erroneously alleged that in December 2014, the Hon. Regional Minister (Ambassador Amin Amidu Suleman) who also doubles as the Member of Parliament flouted an injunction on the annual Kukurbagr festival of Fielimon by the Wa High Court. Not only is this allegation malicious, but it is factually inaccurate as well. We wish to bring to their attention that, no court has ever placed an injunction on the celebration of Kukurbagr. Their allegation is tantamount to drawing the good image of the Wa High Court into disrepute since no such adjudication was issued by the court. They also accused the Hon. Regional Minister of discrimination for failing to attend their Buwala Kelwie Festival though he showed up for the Kukurbagr Festival of Fielimon. We are not here to hold brief for the Hon. Regional Minster, but we see this to be deficient of elementary logic since the Hon. Regional Minister could have been engaged in an equally compelling responsibility on the day of their festival.
The Nimoro/Buwala petitioners in their point five blindly accused the Hon. Regional Minister of financing the Dagaaba against the Sissala in the ongoing land dispute at the Wa High Court. We wish to state without mincing words that, this is nakedly fallacious and outrageous. It should be treated with all the contempt that it deserves. Not only are the petitioners seeking to drag the good image of the Minister/MP to disrepute, they also seek to sow a seed of bad blood between him and his kinsmen. We wish to assure them that, the Dagaaba have the sound independent financial footing to pursue the case to a logical conclusion. We dare them to substantiate such a shameful allegation or render an unqualified apology. In the event that they fail to do so, they shall hear from our lawyers.

It is unfortunate that the Nimoro/Buwala petitioners accused the Hon. Regional Minister of using government institutions to create a culture of impunity where they claimed livestock and crops of “Sissala Landowners” have been destroyed by “Lobi-Dagarti” and government operatives show open bias against them by refusing to effect any arrest. This unfortunate trend of accusation reminds us of the disappearance of ten buckets of milk in George Owell’s legendary “Animals farm”. It is a hypothetical case of the guilty turning to accuse the innocent. We wish to use this opportunity to remind the Nimoro/Buwala petitioners of the litany of instances when they meted unbridled atrocities to the Dagaaba though unprovoked. Some of the instances are as follows:

January 21, 2011: destruction of a farm house on the family farm of the Regent of Fielimon, by Sissala youth of Nimoro. A report was made to the Police by the Regent of Fielimon.
April 15, 2011: Assault by some thirteen youth from Nimoro against one JACKIE PELIPUO and several other people of Fielimon, which set off pandemonium among women and children of Fielimon on that day. A report was made to the Police.
May 3, 2012: An assault on Mr. KYETUB of Fielimon on his farm by eight Sissala youth from Nimoro. Here again a report was made to the Police.
To complete their heinous agenda, on the night of the same day, the Nimoro Sissala laid ambush in Nimoro to attack Fielimon Dagaaba. They ended up shooting and killing a fellow Sissala man of Nimoro. The suspected murderer fled into Burkina that night but was driven back by the Burkinabes in Buoro. The suspect surrendered himself to the Police in Fielimon on May 4, 2012. He was later transferred to Wa where he revealed to the Police in Wa, the plot by the Nimoro people as well as persons behind the supply of arms for the operation.
In February 2014, there was the destruction of a Dagaaba house in Buo by Sissala youth from WIIRO while the Dagaaba were at a funeral ceremony. A retaliatory action by the Dagaaba ended up in the mounting of a road block between Fielimon and Nimoro by Dagaaba of Fielimon to forestall a repetition of the Buo incident. As a way of forcing his way through the road block, a Sissala youth pulled a pistol at the Dagaaba. He was successfully disarmed by the Dagaaba and the pistol given to the police.
It is important to note that in 2011 in particular, thousands of Dagaaba lost their livelihood through these farm destructions by the Sissala Youth. Armed with guns, cutlasses and other weapons, the Nimoro youth, aided by some Sissala communities in the Zini area, organized a destruction of Dagaaba farm crops including yam, cowpea, maize and millet without any cause. In Dakumah and Hiel (near Zini), crops were not only destroyed, but the Dagaaba were driven out of the community.
On 26^th May, 2016 a group of Sissala Youth numbering six, three of them being lead petitioners for the Nimoro/Buwala Youth (Chommbui Kaamil,Bombie Bakanchie and Bentor Solomon) went to the farmland of Mr Kuusoyir Malika, shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation. Just like the others, this case was also reported to the police but these young men still roam about boisteously.

All these acts were meant to provoke the Dagaaba of Fielimon. Though these cases were reported to the police, we regret that no arrest has since been made. It therefore comes as no surprise to us that, the perpetrators of all these attacks turn around to accuse us in a pretense to cover up their guilt.

We wish to state that, the people of Fielimon are a determined people whose ancestors labored on their farms to educate their children in school. Today, Fielimon is one of the communities in the Sissala West District that is ready for development. Unfortunately, some ill-willed individuals of our Sissala brothers strangely do not believe that in this age and time, people should learn to work and contribute to the development of their area and country at large, just as the people of Fielimon are doing. These ill-willed people think that the way to their own ‘future’ is to destruct us through violent intimidation and at the same time pretending to be the ones being hurt. This they want to, with the excuse that the people of Fielimon, all of whom are Ghanaians by birth and by natural law, are ‘strangers’ in their own country and therefore deserve no right to embark on any economic and livelihood activities on farm lands handed over to them by their ancestors. In any case, the Nimoro petitioners have clearly stated in their petition that the ownership of the Fielimon land is under determination in the High Court in Wa. This clearly shows that they have not been declared owners of land in Fielimon to warrant their persistent interference in the development process in the area.

We are aware that some of these so called Nimoro Youth are ill-willed group of young people from Zini and Niator communities, who instead of concentrating on helping themselves and their communities; they elect to become a source of disunity between the people of Fielimon and Nimoro communities who have lived in peace for decades. Unfortunately, these ill-willed intruders have managed to drag the chief of Nimoro, who is supposed to know better as a Lawyer and one who we believe is aware of the historical relationship between Fielimon and Nimoro, into their agenda of violent intimidation backed by lies, all in their bit to destruct a determined people from pursuing genuine development. These people since 2011 have engaged in the destruction of farms owned by the Fielimon people, with threats of firearms. Notwithstanding, we have remained calm and continue to trust in the due process of law because we are not only peace loving, but we also respect the laws of Ghana. However, we wish to state that the obstruction of development projects in Fielimon, as these ill-willed people seek to do, amounts to obstructions in the general development of not only the area, but the entire District, Region and the nation at large and this must be condemned in no uncertain terms by all well-meaning Ghanaians. We wish to call on the elders of Nimoro and the local government authorities to call these trouble makers to order.

As if to put an icing on their cake of fantasies and fallacies brewed in the kitchen of ill- will and malice, the Nimoro and Buwala petitioners in point seven of their petition, accused the ‘Lobi–Dagarti’ of petitioning the Noble Upper West Regional House of Chiefs through the Hon. Regional Minister, to abrogate the processes of elevating Nimoro Division to a paramountcy status. Again, not only is this vile accusation false, but it is an overt manifestation of their inability to appreciate the good sense of judgment of the Noble Regional House of Chiefs. It might also be an unconscious display of their ignorance on due processes involved in the elevation of divisions into paramountcies. Once again, we challenge them to substantiate this empty allegation with empirical evidence or offer unqualified apologies for such pettiness.
It is paradoxical that the Nimoro petioners in points eight, nine and ten of their petition regards the Law Courts as the right place to contest the ownership of Fielimon lands and yet seek to prejudice the determination of the respected court by regarding themselves as allodial title holders. Their flagrant disregard for the august court reached its crescendo when they nakedly accused the noble court of discrimination. In their own words, they alluded that “we have had enough of this naked discrimination as far as the determination of the matter in court is concerned” (point 10 of their petition). This posturing amount to saying that they are above the laws of Ghana and thus when the law courts fairly decide any matter which is not in their favour, they are not prepared to respect it.

We wish to be emphatic here that, the allegation peddled by the petitioners that ‘the Nimoro R/C Primary/JHS, Fielimon L/A Primary/JHS and the Fielimon Church (Parish) all in Fielimon were built after the land had been released by the Nimoro allodial owners of the land’ is palpably false and should be discarded. It gives ample justifications to believe that, the petitioners and their coterie of trouble makers are deficient of the history behind the establishment of these institutions in Fielimon. We further wish to add that no so called Sissala landlord poured libation or cut any sod for the construction of CHPS Compounds at Kuochuur, Kankaduoli or Chetu as alluded to by the petitioners in point nine of their petition. The constructions of those facilities were fully done by government in consultation with the beneficiary communities.

It will interest the petitioners to know that no one in Fielimon has made any attempt to re-write any history by renaming any facility. The alleged change of name from ‘Buo to Mbo, Bupal to Bukpal’ is an issue of pronunciation influenced by dialectical difference. We put it to them, that they are rather seeking an unpopular conduit to mutilate the original pronunciations of the names of these communities to suit their parochial interest. In the matter relating to the siting of the Fielmuo Catholic Parish and the St. Thomas Aquinas Primary and JHS Schools, we wish to inform the petitioners that, the land was dully acquired by a Missionary from the Province of Quebec by name Rev. Fr Remigius McCoy (MAfr.) in the mid 20^th Century. No consultation or allegiance was made in any of these instances to any perceived ‘Sissala landlord’. It is instructive to bring to their notice that, the schools were originally named St. Thomas Aquinas by the Missionaries. The name Nimoro R/C Primary and J.H.S only surfaced in the early 1990s when the schools became government assisted schools. Currently as we speak, government assisted schools are being renamed by the various missions; examples include Nandom Senior High School which is now called St. Michael’s Senior High School, Nandom Vocational Institute now called St. John’s Vocational Institute and Lassia Tuolu Senior High School which is now also called St. Ignatius of Loyola Senior High School. There are several other examples of such renaming of mission schools.

It is interesting that in the web of all their fabrications and fallacies that were carefully woven to forestall the move to site any development intervention in Fielimon, the petitioners climax their malicious petition by viciously issuing threats of blood bath if government continues with its plan of siting a Senior High Technical School in Fielimon without consulting them as ‘Landlords’. Here again, we wish to remind our Sissala brothers that, the determination of allodial land title owners of the Fielimon land is still the prerogative of the Wa High Court and until that is done, it will be prejudicial for them to hold themselves as such.

We again wish to remind them that, the decision of government to site a Senior High Technical School in Fielimon is in pursuit of government’s quest to pursue its obligation of social justice to all citizens of Ghana. They should be reminded that, it is in same spirit that government established the Hilla Liman Senior High School in Gwollu, and a Community Day Senior High School nearing completion in Zini both in the Sissala enclave of the same District. What is different about Fielimon? Could it be the case that they think we do not merit social justice?

We deem it important to add that, the proposed Fielimon Senior High Technical School is a public facility just like any other public senior high school in any part of the country. It shall be opened to Ghanaian children from all parts of the country just like other public schools. For that matter, any move to stop the establishment of the school, with untenable excuses of not being recognized as supposed landowners is inimical to the development efforts of Fielimon and the Government of Ghana. We suspect that it is their master plan to make the government stop the school by provoking us to any kind of conflict, verbal or otherwise and also by seeking to implicate the Regional Minister who is the sitting MP of the Sissala West Consituency. We also suspect that some faceless politicians are behind these machinations. As we keep faith in avoiding their unceasing provocations, we entreat government to remain focused in its development agenda in creating an egalitarian society in our country Ghana.

We further deem it important to acknowledge that, there is still an appreciable number of tolerant and peace loving Sissala people within the Nimoro- Buwaa enclave who are not party to these needless provocations and ‘kill development’ or ‘kill joy syndrome’ but are willing to contribute to development, as well as sustain peace and harmony.

In conclusion, we wish to let our destructors know that we will continue to trust the good institutions of Ghana in dealing with all manner of issues and that we will not allow ourselves to be drawn into any act of illegality and lawlessness. However, like any individual, we have the right to self defense and this right we will not hesitate to exercise if it becomes an absolute option.

We wish to encourage every citizen of Fielimon to keep calm, work harder than before at improving our lot, stay focused at providing good training and education to our children and not get destructed by any group of ill-willed individuals as we continue to trust the institutions of the state to provide us the needed protection, and support to go about our lawful duties and development of our beloved community.

Long live Fielimon,
Long Sissala West District,
Long live mother Ghana.
Thank you for your attention.
...Signed...
Patrick Dugle (020-1633692)
John Paul Latuo (020-3810267)
Fredrick Kuupille (020-6816226)
Gorden Dugle (020-0238294)
Fidelis Naapaneh (020-7452750)
Alfred Domebe-i- mwine Kuusoyir ( 020-7176941)
Chrisantus Kpinye (020-7176941)
Zinteng Amatus (020-9313998)
Hypolite Sorpuo (020-9250169)
Fidelis Bunuyang Kuusoyir (020-9021578)