Contract Killings, Death of Family Members: Stephen Atubiga opens up on Bawku conflicts
The Founder and Leader of the National Liberation Congress (NLC), Stephen Atubiga, has alleged that some youths are being contracted for killings and are paid to serve as warriors in the ongoing Bawku conflict.
According to the politician, some unscrupulous individuals have exploited the high unemployment rate in the township, taking advantage of vulnerable young men by using them as tools to incite violence and carry out killings.
He pointed out that many of the young men bearing arms and actively involved in the conflict are not even natives of Bawku but allegedly take on such contracts to align themselves with the Mamprusis in the fight against the Kusasis.
“These days, due to a lack of jobs in the Bawku area, people take contract killing or getting paid to go fight as warriors. Some come as far as from Nalerigu, Walewale, or Gambaga to come join the Mamprusi in Bawku to fight the Kusasis. Sometimes they get apprehended around Garu, Colgungu, Basuendey areas by the Kusasis or the security services,” he wrote on his Facebook page on April 13, 2025.
Atubiga, a former communications member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), also alleged that there are deliberate plots by the armed youth, claiming their primary objective is to target police officers stationed in Kusasi-dominated areas, with the intention of falsely implicating Kusasi natives in the killings.
“Their task is to kill police officers or security officers in the Kusasi area for it to look like it’s Kusasis killing officers, to incite the police and Kusasis into fighting or Kusasis looking bad,” he added.
Sharing a detailed account of an attack on his family and community in Binduri, a suburb of Bawku, Atubiga recounted receiving a distress call informing him of an assault targeting homes in the area.
He added that his brother had laid in ambush, anticipating the arrival of the armed men as they approached their family residence.
Tragically, he disclosed that a family member and his four-year-old granddaughter lost their lives after being caught in a crossfire between the military and the armed assailants, following the deployment of military personnel to the scene.
“Yesterday, I got a distressed call around 12 PM of some people attacking my community in Binduri moving from house to house. As they entered a house next door to my family house, my brother took ambush waiting for them as my family were able to get the military to move quickly. They killed one family member of mine and his 4-year-old granddaughter during exchange of fire,” he said.
In light of these developments, Atubiga has called on security personnel deployed to the Bawku area to consistently wear their uniforms and use clearly branded police vehicles during their operations.
According to him, this would help in properly identifying them, as he believes they are being deliberately targeted.
Read his full post below:
