The Upper East Regional Minister, Donatus Akamugri Atanga, has dismissed claims that the recent violent altercation at Zuarungu Senior High School was fuelled by tribal divisions.
According to him, the unrest was sparked by a dispute over a stolen mobile phone, and not ethnic tensions as speculated.
The minister explained that his engagement with school authorities and members of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) revealed the true cause of the chaos.
“From the reports that I was given when I engaged the management with my REGSEC members… on Saturday night, one of the students from Nakpanduri area, which is in the North East region, was alleged to have stolen a mobile phone belonging to another student from the Kusasi area,” he noted on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey on Tuesday, July 22,
The minister explained that the incident escalated when the student who lost his phone approached the alleged thief with two friends to retrieve it.
“In the scuffle, the accused student also had two boys with him, and then the whole issue broke into a fight,” he recounted.
“Where the other students started joining was because of the friends’ involvement. It wasn’t clearly anything associated with tribal lines.”
He emphasized that what unfolded was a typical youth-driven misunderstanding that spiralled into a larger confrontation: “The class—you know the youth—also fell in line and joined the riot.”
