LAND DISPUTE TURN VIOLENT...One shot dead, 2 injured (1B Jan 28)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Abiriw

ONE person was shot dead, while two others sustained gunshot wounds, when a long-standing land dispute between the people of Dawu and Abiriw in the Eastern Region turned violent on Wednesday.
Kwabena Adu, 35, and Kwadwo Adu, 36, both from Abiriw, were said to be working on their farm when they were allegedly attacked by a group from Dawu and shot in the chest and the hip, respectively.
A third person, Asiamah Bekwin, 40, also from Abiriw, was allegedly kidnapped in the process but his body was found in the bush 24 hours later.
Kwabena and Kwadwo were rushed to the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Mampong where they are responding to treatment.
Asiamah’s body was found with some gunshot wounds in the stomach by a search team comprising policemen and youth from Abiriw.
He and six others had gone to their farms on the Abiriw-controlled side of the disputed land between the two neighbouring towns.
Intensive rescue efforts mounted by the police and some of the youth from Abiriw to search for him and seek his release proved futile until his body was discovered in the bush.
The body has been deposited at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.
When Asiamah’s death made the rounds in Abiriw, irate youth massed up to avenge their friend’s death but they were reported to have been stopped by a heavy police presence in the area.
Meanwhile, police reinforcement has been dispatched from Accra and Koforidua to maintain peace between the youth of Abiriw and Dawu.
Police sources said when news of the shooting and kidnapping got to Abiriw, the youth from the area massed up in front of the Abiriwhene’s palace and on the main street. They blocked the main road leading to the town to search every passing vehicle to vent their anger on passengers suspected to be from Dawu.
But they were quickly dispersed by armed policemen sent there from Akropong.
Briefing the Daily Graphic at Dawu, the Akropong Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Ernest Owusu, said when he received information on the shooting, he quickly deployed a team to the scene where the victims were found abandoned.
He said his men rushed them to the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital.
Chief Supt Owusu said to prevent any clash between the youth from the two towns, the police went to the Abiriwhene’s palace and appealed to him to advise the youth of Abiriw to refrain from carrying out any violent retaliation.
The police, he said, again went to the acting Dawuhene’s palace to plead with him to prevail on the youth to release the kidnapped person but that had not been done.
Just after that, he said, a reinforcement from Koforidua and Accra was called in to ensure peace in the area.
The armed policemen continue to patrol the streets of the two neighbouring towns to avert any violent clash between the youth of the towns.
An emergency meeting has also been held at the Abiriwhene’s palace between the District Security Committee (DISEC) and the traditional leaders of Abiriw to find an amicable solution to the problem.