The 13 persons in police detention for their alleged involvement in the Bawku chieftaincy disturbances will be put before court today, Tuesday.

There was a renewed chieftaincy clash in Bawku last Monday, which led to the loss of lives and the destruction of property.

Sporadic shootings were recorded in parts of the town prior to the renewed clashes following attempts to perform the final funeral rites for a chief who died about 41 years ago.

A group calling itself Bawku Mamprugu Youth Association in a press statement however said the continuous detention of the suspects is a violation of their human rights.

They said their detention almost a week after their arrest without taking them through due process was unfair.

“We would want to make it clear to the government or the state that our kinsmen are being treated like animals who have been caged without any rights.”

“Our kinsmen, numbering 11 men and a woman, had been arrested and sent to Accra and locked up at various police cells. Our lawyers have done all that is legally possible for the police at the CID division of the police headquarter to release the suspects on bail either on police inquiry or before a court of competent jurisdiction as constitutionally required in respect of their fundamental human rights.”

The group also accused the Interior Minister of preventing the release of the suspects.

“Our information is that the Interior Minister has turned himself into a court of law and given instructions that our kinsmen should not be released.”

“Whatever the reasons, only Ambrose Dery can tell. For someone who is not just a lawyer but also a law maker to wantonly break the law and gleefully state that he does not mind paying compensation to the detained for his negligence and using taxpayers’ resources to unlawfully detain our kinsmen is most disappointing,” the statement said.