YA–NA REFUSES TO DIE

…Spirit torments Kufuor & Co (1)
Special Report: Richmond Keelson
The late Overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani refuses to die. And after some seven years, precisely, Wednesday, March 27, 2002, of the gruesome murder of the Dagomba King, his sleepless soul seeks the perpetrators of the heinous act.

And like the beliefs usually associated with murders of such kind in African set-ups, where often disturbed spirits of the murdered in such circumstances often seek redress through trusted allies or loyalists, it does seem veteran politician, lawyer and a counsel of the late Ya Na, Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama is being possessed with the spirit of the late King to help uncover the perpetrators of the wicked act.

His response to the innate call defies the usual flyers that to many, have no basis in the Dagbon carnage, but were only bandied around by people driven by sentiments and passion rather than the reality on the ground. Alhaji Mahama believes an act that was staged at the full glare of Yendi indigenes for close to three days cannot be discussed without basis and is convinced about the identity of the real culprits in the Yendi carnage, and this he has uncovered in his well documented book: “MURDER OF AN AFRICAN KING: YA-NA YAKUBU II”.

In the book, Alhaji Ibrahim narrates how events in the aftermath of the gruesome murder of the Ya Na, offer a pointer of complicity of then President John Agyekum Kufuor and his government; and although he concedes that the regicide was undoubtedly committed by the Abudu Family, they (the Abudu family members who carried out the murder) were aided in that monstrous act “by the government of J.A, Kufuor, the Northern Regional Security Council and the Yendi District Security Committee”.

The 338 page book offers a chronology of events, the act itself and the subsequent developments which he sums up in page four (4) under the heading “The Cover UP” . It gives an insight into the gruesome murder of the Ya-Na, how it could have easily be averted and other incontrovertible evidences that if the government and the police investigating team had wanted to use, would have easily helped to identify the perpetrators. In his opinion, those evidences were ignored by the state teams, because they were not prepared to give away anybody in the “Cover Up” game.

“Hints of a cover up of the murder of the Ya-Na”, Alhaji Mahama states, “were revealed in veiled threats of the President of Ghana (then President Kufuor sic) against not the perpetrators of the murder but the victims of the violence and carnage in Yendi”.

He continues: “It was the address of the President on the murder of the Dagomba King that keen political observers smelt a rat and immediately warned members of the Andani family against their optimism in the declaration that of the President that he and his government would do everything in their power to find the perpetrators of the heinous crime”.

The learned Tamale lawyer divided the process of the cover-up into two: “In the first place we will deal with the cover up by the police and other security agencies. In the second part of the cover-up process, we will deal with the Wuaku Commission which was nothing but a cunning tactics of a cover-up by the government (the NPP administration of J.A. Kufuor, sic).

According to Lawyer Mahama, soon after the announcement of the demise of the Dagbon King by President Kufuor, A chief superintendent of Police, David Asante Apeatu was appointed to lead police investigators to investigate the violence and carnage at Yendi.

“In the afternoon of Thursday, 29th March, 2002, the chief superintendent of Police-in the person of Asante Apeatu-arrived at Tamale in the company of the ministerial delegation”, he states adding that the role ministerial delegation relates to the government's cover-up process.

“The first item relates to the site where the mutilated body of Ya Na lay on 27th March, 2002 and was conveyed by the policemen and prison warders to Yendi Hospital. The second item relates to the meeting between the ministerial delegation and members of the Abudu Family…

On the first item we would like to restate that Chief Superintendent Apeatu in the company of the ministerial delegation and members of the Andani family were shown the spot where the murderers damned the mutilated body of the Ya Na and began incineration. At the delegation's meeting with members of the Abudu family, ex-Zalinko Lana, whom Abdulai Mahamadu, the so-called Bolin Lana made Mbadudgu contrary to custom, was the spokesman of the Abudu Family. What transpired at the meeting was telecast on GTV on Saturday 30th March, 2002 during the midday news broadcast. In the news telecast, the so-caled Mba Dugu made statements suggesting that they the members of the Abudu Family had to carry out the assault on the Ya Na's Palace because for the twenty-eight years of Naa Yakubu's reign, members of the Abudu Family had had no peace…”

This is was in the presence of Abudulai Mahamadu who had established a parallel King f Dagbon and had partially usurped the powers of the Ya Na by appointing members of the Abudu Family as chiefs or title holders including ex-Zalinko Lana who was parading as Mba Dugu at the meeting.

The leader of the police investigating team, Mr. Apeatu, was present at the meeting. A correspondent of the Statesman, a pro-government newspaper, was also present at the meeting. Influenced by what he saw in Yendi two days after the regicide and what he heard from members of the Abudu Family, the correspondent, Asare Otchere Darko, remarked: 'From the little that one saw it was pretty obvious that although the regicide was a crime most vile and unprecedented, to reduce it to straightforward case of lese majesty would be far off the mark…'

“This is how he captured the proceedings: “ … in addressing the government delegation at Yendi, the chief Linguist to the crown Prince Abudulai from the Abudu Gate, with a blue towel perching delicately on top of his old head, quickly alerted us to the feud between the two royal households. He remarked that for 28 years under the reign of the late Ya Na Yakubu Andani, 'we have seen no peace'…

However in the estimation of the author, “the proceedings of the meeting between members of the Abudu Family and the government delegation as shown in the midday news telecast of GTV on 30th Marc and captured by the Statesman is a confession statement of the Abudu Family which made 'the search for those who conspired, planned, sponsored and murdered Ya Na Yakubu II and twenty eight others a very close one…'”

“Since the leader of the police investigating team was present at the meeting one would have thought that he would note down the spokesman of the Abudu Family as a suspect in the murder of the Ya Na. There is, however, no evidence that the suspect was ever questioned by the police investigating team on the statement he made before the government delegating team on the statement he made before the government delegation on 29th March 2002…”, Alhaji Mahama wondered.

In his view “This failure on the part of the investigating team was certainly not an omission but part of a well-orchestrated plan to cover up the violence and carnage in Yendi. This well orchestrated plan to cover up the violence and carnage was soon to surface.

On 1st April, 2002, a hard fact relating to the murder of the Ya Na came into the possession of the police investigators. It is uncertain how the hard fact and important fact came into the possession of the investigators (because the police will not say it). This all important fact might have either come into possession of the investigators through their hard work or by a fortuitous circumstance. The bottom line is that that hard fact and important fact came into the possession of the police investigators…

The all important fact spelt the doom of those who conspired, planned sponsored and executed the plan to murder the Ya Na and to cause the carnage in Yendi. The fact-if it had been allowed to see the light of day- would have brought joy to the Andani Family and all people who value human life and condemn unreservedly the spilling of human blood.

It would have brought justice and its twin brother peace to Dagbon. It would have made absolutely unnecessary, the appointment of the Wauku Commission and avoided the expenditure of nearly a billion cedis on that commission. The expenditure of billions of cedis on peacekeeping forces in Dagbon would have been minimal since peace would have returned to Dagbon sooner than later”.

He continued that if that incontrovertible fact had been used by the government investigating team, it would have revived the flagging integrity of the Ghana police and perhaps restored them to the Kibi murder fame of the Gold Coast police. All these and more were unbelievably sacrificed by the government on the altar of minority political interest and expediency.

“And what was this hard fact which seemed to be an elixir of life and happiness?” Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama answers in tomorrow's issue. Book your copies in our subsequent editions throughout the week.