Tamale, Dec. 22, GNA - The Nanumba North District in the Northern Region is gradually heading towards chieftaincy crisis, a situation which is having a crippling effect on the security and development of the area. Currently, all traditionally and customary enskinned chiefs in the district had died and the vacancies have not been filled, Mr. Salifu Saeed, Nanumba North District Chief Executive, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on Thursday in Tamale.

He said a worrying situation among the people in the district is that there is no a substantive chief for the Bimbilla Paramountcy to enskin chiefs to occupy the vacant skins in the various communities. As such, regents are now governing the district traditionally.

Mr. Saeed said the two contestants to the Bimbilla paramountcy, Nakpa-Naa Salifu Dawuni and Dasa-Naa Andani have each enskinned themselves paramount chiefs of the Bimbilla skin even though the Northern Regional House of Chiefs (NRHC) is yet to rule as to who is the rightful chief of the Bimbilla skin.

He expressed the fear that should anyone of them die now, his supporters would want to enskin a regent, a situation he said, which has the potential of creating a conflict again in the district. Mr. Saeed said the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute had been with the NRCH for the past four years and appealed to the chiefs to pass judgment on the rightful candidate to the skin without any delay to help maintain peace in the district.

"The absence of a Bimbilla Naa is posing security unrest among the people", he said, adding: "The district has experienced some conflicts for sometime now and we want to plead with the NRCH to consider the plight of the people and come out with a verdict on the dispute". Mr. Saeed said, apart from the insecurity situation that the absence of substantive chiefs was opposing, revenue mobilisation for the district assembly was also being affected.

"I am also at a lost as to who to go to and seek advice for the fear of being accuse of taking sides", he said. He appealed to assembly members in the communities not take sides in the chieftaincy disputes but instead work as facilitators of peace to promote development in the area.

"As leaders of our people, let us rethink and refocus our attention to how we can collectively unite them and ensure peace and stop indulging ourselves in disputes that are likely to derail the development potentials of the district", he said.