Minister Calls For Calm Over Ahwiaa Clashes

Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development is urging calm among residents of Ahwiaa in the Kwabre East Municipality of the Ashanti Region.

Sector Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, visited the area a week after renewed clashes between two youth groups there left one dead and several others injured.

Citi News checks in the area reveal that calm has returned with schools and shops which were closed now opened.

Police officers have also been stationed at vantage locations including some schools within the area.

A Kumasi Circuit has remanded 40 persons who were arrested during the conflict, and they are to reappear on 27^th March, 2018.

Alhaji Saddique Boniface, who held separate meetings with elders and youth of the Ahwiaa Zongo Community called on them to let peace prevail.

“The most important thing is to find ways and means of getting the people together. Yesterday, Monday], I was here, I spoke with the elders and today [ Tuesday], I have come to meet the youth to talk to them to exercise extra patience because for any development to come to an area, the most paramount, cardinal factor is peace. The President is someone who wants peace, and he has delegated me to come and speak with the residents”, he said.

He mentioned poverty, diseases, illiteracy and unemployment as some of the problems facing most communities in Ghana, and said Government was working hard to assist the youth to become good citizens.

The Minister called on the media to be circumspect when reporting on such issues in order not to escalate the already existing tension in the area.

The Madina Member of Parliament also denied reports that the conflict was not about Muslims and Christians, and was quick to add that it was a conflict between some two groups in the area.

He indicated that the Zongo community has co-existed peacefully with the locals in the area, and urged them to continue to live in harmony.

He further indicated that his inability to meet with the locals in the area was due to the fact that the Asante Chiefs were all attending a programme at the Manhyia Palace after the Asantehene returned from his recent international travels.