Residents of Manso Tontokrom in the Amansie South district of the Ashanti region are calling for government intervention to restore calm in the town as violence resurfaces.
Until recent attacks on their acting chief and his household by some angry youth who were wielding weapons, the residents had been hopeful that violence would never erupt again in Manso Tontokrom.
According to the townspeople, the violent youth stormed the chief’s house at night, and though he escaped with his family, his properties were not spared.
Manso Tontokrom has been known for its violence but saw calm when the then acting chief, Nana Tonto, was destooled and a new chief was installed.
He was blamed for the violence in the community on account that he had always surrounded himself with thugs whom he engaged in perpetrating crimes against the people.
Answering what the cause of the recent attack on the acting chief was, a member of the community, Madam Fosuwaa spoke to journalists.
“My son, Nana Bonus, had received visitors whom he took to a guest house to lodge there. The boys met him and began to question the authority with which he acted in bringing the visitors and lodging them, knowing well that chieftaincy issues in the community have not been resolved.
“When verbal exchanges ensued and they were not satisfied with the responses, they decided to invade his home. The people were numbering about 30 and were wielding guns, machetes and clubs. They left his home completely destroyed, but the family managed to escape,” Madam Fosuwaa narrated.
An elder of the town also told journalists that they are always in danger of encountering violence from the thugs because the youth are fearless in committing crimes with the notion that no punishment would be meted out to them.
He said: “We live without protection here. The little mistake you make out here can result in your death and it will get no where. We have filed several complaints to government, yet to no avail. We cannot go on living in such dangerous situation.”
“The government should intervene to beef up security and Asantehene should also give us the leader who will bring peace and calm into the community,” he added in plea.
Meanwhile, the acting chief Nana Bonus, corroborating all said by the elder and members of the community, noted that the inadequate security personnel in the community accounts for many of the occurrences.
“Security here needs to be beefed up because the police are not enough. We have built a police station for them, but the personnel are not available to use the facility. People walk about wielding weapons and threatening to kill because they know at the end of the day, they will not be held liable and it is worrying.
“We therefore call on the President Akufo-Addo and the Inspect General of Police to post more men here to beef up security in the community. We also plead with Otumfuo to help install a chief for us to bring the chaos to a end,” he said.
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