The North East Regional Minister, Tia Ibrahim, has defended the government’s decision to impose a curfew on Walewale, citing the failure of stakeholder consultations to contain the escalating crisis.
On February 15, the government through the Ministry of Interior imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew on Walewale in the North East Region and its surrounding areas in response to recent violent attacks and killings along the Bolgatanga-Tamale highway.
The attacks and assaults resulted in the deaths of at least nine people, including a child. Additionally, four vehicles have been set ablaze by unknown assailants, escalating fears among residents and travellers along the highway.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, February 17, 2025, the regional minister explained that despite multiple engagements with traditional and opinion leaders, attacks along the highway continued.
“The issue is this, we were given the opportunity to act, and we agreed that we could manage the situation on the ground. That was why we started the stakeholder consultation with traditional leaders and opinion leaders, thinking that it would give us a positive result and minimise attacks along the highway. We started the consultation on a Monday, continued on a Wednesday, and even continued to Thursday.
“As I am talking to you, the last brutal attack occurred on Friday. It appears that as we have started the consultation processes, it was not yielding results. We haven’t gotten to the root cause of the matter and the attacks were still going on. We are there to take care of lives and properties so there is nothing we could do than to go along with the curfew,” he stated.
However, the Member of Parliament for Walewale, Dr Kabiru Mahama, criticised the move, calling it an “unfortunate decision” that restricts the freedom of residents.
“The decision to impose curfew is rather an unfortunate decision, unfortunate in the sense that it was not expected as much as we appreciate and understand the government commitment to ensuring peace and stability in Walewale and Ghana at large, especially, travellers travelling through the Walewale constituency.
“They did not expect that the government will take a rather a draconian approach that limits their freedom of movement, an approach that make the people of Walewale the victims of a situation that is persisting in the constituency, so they are not happy.
“I am, particularly, not happy and I feel the government could have addressed this issue using a different approach, he could have used a different approach to ensure that travellers are safe and the loss of innocent lives will be curtailed to ensure that we have a lasting peace in Bawku and any other place that e have the consequential effect of that underlined issue,” he added.
North East: Curfew imposed on Walewale following deadly highway attacks
