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| Wungu-Naba |
The
poor father of eight (8) children, Fuseini Bawa, who was unjustifiably banished
from Kukuazugu together with his entire household of 23 by the Paramount Chief
of Wungu has told Savannahnews in a
follow-up interview that he was still living in fear and that his life was
still in danger in the area.
He
said that he could not also guarantee the safety of his family in Kukuazugu, a
suburb of Walewale in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region
following the failure of the Overlord of Mamprugu Kingdom, Nayiri Na Bohugu
Mahami Abdulai Sheriga to intervene in the amicable settlement of the matter
that led to his banishment by Wungu Naba Alhaji Saaka Sulemana.
Fuseini
Bawa bemoaned that the Chief was still not reformed in his stance against him,
and had also succeeded in getting all the “super powers in Walewale including
the District Chief Executive, the BNI and the Police officers to rally behind
him”.
He
asserted that all of those people he could have run to seek refuge from were
against him, because he was the only one who boldly stepped forward to rebuke
the Wungu Naba and attempted legal actions against him for unlawfully keeping
the cows for over a year without distributing them to the owners.
According
to him, even though the Nayiri had prevailed upon him (Fuseini Bawa) to drop
the legal action he initiated against the Wungu Naba and also ordered the Chief
for his return to the community together with his family, the Wungu Naba was
still holding in trust all his properties that he confiscated including the 26
cows and the two well stocked boutiques, which are all under huge padlocks till
date.
Fuseini
Bawa who is said to be a known cattle dealer told this blogger that per their
custom, banishment was a serious punishment which does not only forever make a
person and his or her generation outcasts in the eyes of the entire members of
the community, but also prevents them from having access to public places,
until the time that the Chief himself had openly revoked the curses associated
with the practice.
“The
Chief rained so many curses on me and my family for trying to take him to
court, and because of that we appear to the people like unclean people. Now my
wives and my children cannot go out freely as it used to be and as for me, I am
always hiding because I fear for my life. Our chief does not fear or listen to
anybody not even the police”.
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| Fuseini Bawa |
The
Wungu Naba who is noted for handling all criminal cases brought before him and
taking arbitrary decisions to sentence or punish offenders instead of allowing
such matters to be handled by the Police, slapped Fuseini Bawa with that
capital punishment of banishment over an alleged misunderstanding between him
and the victim.
Narrating
his ordeal to Savannahnews from his hideout through the mobile phone of his
interpreter who is also our informant, the banished Fuseini Bawa bemoaned that
his two wives, eight children as well as twelve other relatives living with him
have all been banished from the area and any other community that falls under
the jurisdiction of the Wungu Naba.
According
to him, the banishment followed his decision to go to court over a disagreement
he had with the Wungu Naba concerning the distribution of a number of cattle he
and other individuals had left in the care of one Fulani herdsman called Amadu
Braimah, who secretly relocated to an unknown destination with some of the animals
leaving 115 of the cattle behind.
The
attention of the Wungu Naba, according to Fuseini was therefore drawn to the
matter, but the Chief unjustifiably decided to seize all the 115 cattle. Out of
the 115 cattle, Fuseini said “I had a total of 26 cattle with Amadu but
the Wungu Naba decided not to give me even a single calf”.
Fuseini
who felt being cheated therefore, decided to seek legal redress to enable him
get back his 26 cattle from the Chief.
But
the Wungu Naba feeling disrespected by Fuseini, invoked the stone-age
punishment which involves banishing him and his entire family from the
town.
Fuseini’s
two wives told the paper that they were ejected from their home in the absence
of their husband, and that they had to spend two nights in the bush with their
children including an eight months old baby.
“We
had no place to go rather than spending the nights in the bush with our
children.
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| Wives of Fuseini |
However,
after their return to Kukuazugu, the First Wife of Fuseini, Madam Sadia Fuseini
told Savannahnews in an interview that because the Wungu Naba had
refused to release the confiscated properties back to her husband, the whole
family was finding it very difficult to survive.
According
to her, even Fuseini wanted to send the children to different school in a
different community to avoid the public ridicules the children were facing, but
there was no money.
When
asked whether they had reported the matter to the police, Fuseini and his first
wife Sadia asserted that the Police in Walewale had been reduced to just robber
stamps, as they were being ordered around by the Chief and the District Chief
Executive who is also a strong supporter of the Wungu Naba.
The
Wungu Naba was said to have used seven (7) heavily armed police personnel to
distribute the 115 cows at gun point after one year of keeping them.
“Those
who were supposed to get maybe 15 were given 10, those who had maybe 20 cows
were given 13 and they were not allowed to select the fatty ones by the armed
police and the Chief. They also had no chance to complain. But when I went there
to also take my 26 cows, the Chief ordered the Police to sack me so I had to
run away,” Fuseini asserted.
When
contacted by Savannahnews, the District Chief Executive for West Mamprus,
Adam Yussif denied that Fuseini and his family were ever banished by the
Paramount Chief of Wungu, but admitted the misunderstanding over the 115
abandoned cows by the Fulani man.
He
said that over 200 people came out to lay claims as owners of the cows, but the
Chief he indicated ordered that nobody should touch any cow and referred the
matter to him (the DCE) who also set up a committee under the District Security
Committee (DISEC) to investigate the matter and come out with the rightful
owners of the cows.
After
their investigations, they settled on 49 names excluding Fuseini. So the cattle
were distributed under the supervision of heavily armed police to curtail any
security threat.
Efforts
to speak to the District Police Commander of Walewale, Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr Simon Peter Akabati proved unsuccessful.
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