Attack On The Chief's Palace.

Hi guys,

The week is finally coming to an end. I hope we make the most of this wonderful weekend filled with joy and happiness.
Have you witnessed a real-time crime take place before? If you have and you are still alive then I think it wasn’t too severe. For this topic, I had to look deep into my memory and try and remember if I’ve witnessed those crimes, if they are worth talking about and if readers will like to hear such a story.

Well, it turns out I’ve witnessed a few crimes. Some of them were quite interesting, some were scary and one was not soo serious.

The crime rate in the northern part of Ghana is something not to write home about. We can all agree that even if hooligans can take their nonsense anywhere at all, the chief palace is no place to go. This is because it is believed that the chiefs are always fortified against such attacks. An attack like that can only happen if the culprits are on drugs or have also gone to take special powers to allow them to do what they did.

What caused this dispute was that we have two chiefs in tamale, one of them being the “Dakpema” and the other one the “GulkpeNaa”. What happens is that we can only have one overlord of a town and the others will be referred to as the sub-chiefs. So both of these chiefs were referring to themselves as the overlord chief of tamale.

This issue was taken to the overlord of the whole of the northern region; the “Yaa-Naa”. “Yaa-Naa” after accessing the issue decided to rule in favour of the “GulkpeNaa” which didn’t make the “Dakpema” happy. Now, in the north what happens is that the overlord of each town has a drum which is beaten every morning. The beating of the drum represents two things; one of them signifying that it’s daybreak and the other signifying that he is the overlord of that particular town.

So after the “Yaa-Naa” made the decision, it officially banned the “Dakpema” from sounding his drum in the morning to symbolise his strength. Since the “Dakpema” was not satisfied with the “Yaa-Naa’s” decision he refused to pay heed to the band of beating his drum to symbolise his strength.

The “GulkpeNaa”, who was favoured in this issue decided to take matters into his own hands and act. He decided to get boys to attack the chief's palace. Something I think was not good but what can I say, at the thought of power we can do anything to have that power and keep that power.

So he asked his gunmen to raid the “Dakpema’s” palace. I can remember the incident like it was yesterday. It was early in the morning around 5-5:30 immediately after morning prayers. I was in bed when I suddenly heard gunshots. I woke up in fear. My siblings were in the room so I asked them not to stand up, I asked them to lay low until all this was done with. I crawled and went out to see what was happening. It happened that gunmen were shooting at the palace.

They were a lot and I don’t think anyone was prepared to come and see what was happening. The chief, who we believe was fortified enough came out to see what was happening. He believed the bullet could not penetrate through him even if they shot him but he was wrong. When he came out to check the gunmen directed the bullet at his leg and shot it. It penetrated and he had to be rushed to the hospital. Other people were shot and injured in the gunshot. It appears this was just an act to scare the “Dakpema” and his people cause no one was killed in the incident. Just that people sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to the hospital.

The gunmen who we believe were sent by the other chief were in a mask. We don’t even know who sent them, we just believe since the other chief wants it then he sent them. They didn’t enter the palace, they only shot from outside and the evidence of the shooting could be seen on the walls as some of the bullets penetrated the walls. There was blood all over too.

It was a scary day as I thought one of the bullets could penetrate the wall and get to me or one of my siblings. I thought it was a general attack hence they could come to our house too. Am glad they didn’t come into our homes. This is a crime of the highest power and I don’t think any chief needs to disrespect his fellow chief in that manner. This could have caused a war in tamale but we were lucky the one who was attacked didn’t retaliate.

This is a crime I witnessed, the culprits were not caught but the police began an investigation into the matter. I hope the culprits get arrested to show others these types of things cannot just happen to important people in society.