NPC to engage stakeholders to end Bimbilla dispute

The National Peace Council (NPC) has said it will continue to engage all stakeholders in the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute to help bring lasting peace to the area for people to go about their daily activities without fear or any form of apprehensions.

Consequently, the council has initiated steps to ensure that all stakeholders come together to work towards the sustenance of peace in the area.

Stakeholders engagement

As part of the peace-building initiative to restore total peace to Bimbilla, the NPC met with members of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs, the Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC), members from the two feuding factions in the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute, the Nakpa and the Andani royal families of the Gbugma-Yili royal gate, the people of Bimbilla both at home and the diaspora, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media in Tamale last week.

The consultative meeting with the various stakeholders on the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute was to solicit for views and come up with strategies to help bring about lasting peace in the area for meaningful development to take place.

Outcomes

One of the key achievements after the consultative meeting was that the people of Bimbilla agreed to work together to help bring about lasting peace in the area, which the NPC has described as a positive sign.

Supreme Court ruling

At a day’s consultative meeting on the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute with CSOs and the media in Tamale last Friday, the Catholic Bishop of Yendi, Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, who chaired the meeting, said it was to formulate a strategy to engage the people of Bimbilla ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute.

According to him, the strategy was to engage with all and sundry in the dispute and also to prepare the minds of the people to accept the Supreme Court verdict on the matter whichever way it would go.

Rev. Boi-Nai, however, called on the Supreme Court to quickly come up with its verdict on the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute, since any further delay in its ruling on the case would amount to justice denied.

He, therefore, called for continuous dialogue and engagement with all stakeholders in the dispute to bring lasting peace to Bimbilla.

A member of the Governing Board of the NPC, Mr Shaibu Abubakar, said the consultative meeting was to help sustain the current peace in the area for people to go about their farming activities, as the major farming season drew nearer, without fear and apprehensions, and also for people to perform their religious obligations as the Ramadan, the period of fasting and prayers by Muslims, approached.

Background

The long-standing Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute is between the two royal families of Bimbilla, the Nakpa and the Andani royal families, who belonged to the same gate, the Gbugma-Yili Royal gate.

In Bimbilla, the skin is rotated between the Bang-Yili and Gbugma-Yili royal gates. The choice of an overlord is alternated between different gates of the same family. A gate is like a branch of the royal family. The term gate is used to signify the fact that new overlords from different gates enter the palace from particular entrances after nominations.

Even though one of the contestants, Naa Dasana Dawuni, initially won the dispute of who should be the overlord of Bimbilla, an appeal was made and it was then agreed that until that appeal was heard, there was no recognised Bimbilla-Naa or overlord.

However, the other contestant, the Nakpa-Naa, Salifu Dawuni, who was Chief of Nakpa, died before the appeal proceedings could be completed. A dispute arose over the burial of the Nakpa-Naa that led to the assassination of Naa Dasana Dawuni together with some of his lieutenants in June 2014.

This plunged Bimbilla again into a crisis and in the early part of this year, the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute was reignited, leading to the death of about 10 people. Bimbilla has been under a curfew since the renewed chieftaincy clashes between the two feuding factions in the dispute.

Bimbilla consists primarily of the Nanumba tribe, who are closely related to the Dagomba people of the Dagbon Kingdom, which includes Tamale and Yendi. The Dagbani language is spoken by the Dagombas while the Nanun language is spoken by the Nanumbas. The two languages are similar and speakers of both languages are able to speak directly with each other as if in their own languages. 

According to legend, the founder of Nanumba was a junior brother of the founder of Dagbon.