The annual fire or Bugum festival common to many ethnic groups in the Northern Region has claimed two lives leaving dozens with various degrees of injuries.
One of the recorded fatalities occurred after the deceased was attacked with a cutlass in Walewale, a Mamprusi part of the Northern Region.
In Sang in the Mion District of the Northern Region close to Yendi, an articulated truck reportedly drove into people marking the occasion and killed one person.
The agitated celebrants set the truck on fire, the driver having fled into a nearby bush.
Confirming the incidents to DAILY GUIDE, the Public Relations Officer of the Northern Regional Police Command, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, said “Rashida Abdul Aziz, 22, who went to witness the festival, unfortunately suffered gunpowder burns on her face. At Changli, a suburb of Tamale, Nashiru Huziafa, 15, suffered a deep cut on his head after he was hit with the butt of a gun by an unknown person; while Mustapha Sumaila, 32, sustained a deep cut on the head and suffered burns on his hand after a locally manufactured gun exploded.”
In yet another incident at the Lamashegu suburb of Tamale, one Iddrisu Abdul Rahuf, 30, was shot at by an unknown person, leaving him seriously injured.
The injured are on admission at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Accidents are common during the festival and sometimes scores are settled during the confusion that follows the celebration which is steeped in Islam. Unfortunately, over the years it has lost its religiousness somewhat, with the authorities putting it on hold in especially Yendi, the traditional capital of Dagbon, because of a major tragedy which occurred in one such festivity.
FROM Kombat Eric, Tamale