Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has said the security situation in the Upper East Region town of Bawku is frightening.
Speaking On the floor of Parliament, Tuesday, the Tamale South MP lamented that even as a prominent MP, he was disallowed from going to some places in Bawku during a recent visit.
“…Let’s not take the matter in Bawku lightly, on two occasions I was asked that I can’t enter here or go there. That is the extent of the heat manifesting in excessive arms in wrong hands and citizens are just sitting across, not relating to each other as they used to,” Haruna Iddrisu lamented.
“Driving back, I have been frightened by the deteriorating situation in Bawku, it must receive the necessary and urgent attention from the Minister of Interior and probably for National Security.”
The Bawku conflict is a tribal one between the Kusasis and Mamprusis, who both claim ownership of land and the right to chieftaincy in the area. The disputes trace back to pre-colonial times.
The recent spike followed attempts to perform final funeral rites for a Chief who died some 41 years ago.
As a result of the recent conflict, the government placed a curfew on the area and banned the wearing of smocks in which people hide guns and other deadly weapons to spring attacks.