Four persons were confirmed dead Thursday in a gunfight involving butchers and guards of the regent of Nanum.
The guards of the Bimbilla Naa are reported to have stormed a slaughterhouse to enforce a hitherto unknown tradition that all butchers are to present specific part of their slaughtered meat to the palace.
TV3 gathered there was disagreement over the issue between two butcher groups, one of which was mentioned as Talbabo, at a meeting held on Wednesday.
In what the palace guards had considered a defiance of the directive and disrespect for the skin after butchers sent the meat straight to the market, a gunfight ensued on Thursday.
Ebenezer Tetteh, the Public Relations Officer of the Northern Regional Police Command, told TV3 on Thursday that reinforcement had been called in from the regional capital of Tamale.
Nine persons were being treated of gunshot wounds on Thursday, but the Police Director of Public Affairs, Cephas Arthur, told Accra-based Joy FM on Friday, that the death toll has risen to 8.
He also revealed that the injured persons are now eleven, including an eleven year old boy. TV3’s Northern Regional Correspondent, Zubaida Ismail, says close to ten houses have been burnt forcing several others to also flee their homes.
According to him, three more bodies which were discovered in a bush, have all been deposited at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Morgue.
He said those arrested for their role in the crime are still eight being processed for court.
Bimbilla has been under curfew since the death of their chief in June.
By:Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/3news.com/Ghana