Ho, Oct. 19, Chronicle -- Once again, another horrifying scene has been created at Awudome in the Ho district, which is likely to fan a long-standing conflict between the people there and their immediate neighbours. The residents of the usually serene village of Agata on the Accra-Ho highway woke up on October 4, 2004 to be greeted by the nasty sight of two of their citizens lying beheaded.

Kudzo Girentsi, alias Kon, and Yao Megbetor, both farmers who supplied vegetables to the Awudome Senior Secondary School (AWUSCO) were shot on their way home from their farm.

Their decapitated bodies have since been deposited at the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho, while their assailants are yet to be arrested.

Police sources have confirmed the incident and added that investigations have already started to get those behind the crime.

In an interview, the Regional Police Commander, Mr. Kofi Duku Arthur said the police administration was handling the matter with all the seriousness it deserved, and revealed that a ?5million cash tag had been placed on the head of the perpetrators for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those involved.

According to C.O.P. Arthur, this was not the first time that such a thing had happened in the area, and called on all those with valuable information to cooperate with the police to apprehend the perpetrators.

The commander pointed out that for now, the matter was being treated as a murder case and thought it could not be related to the border conflict between the people of Tsito Awudome and Peki.

But the people on the ground at the point of the crime see it differently. A news release by the regent of Awudome, Togbe Setsu III, said the people of Peki might be behind it.

According to the regent, two days before the heinous crime, one Samuel Asilevi of Peki-Avetile was arrested by the natives and handed over to the Anyirawase police for allegedly terrorizing the youth.

He said not long after his arrest, some 30 people turned up from Avetile at the station, demanding his release.

The regent therefore called on government to handle the matter with dispatch before it got too late.

Several armed policemen and soldiers had been sent to the area to maintain law and order in the wake of tension in the area.