Rally behind Togbi Sri III

I WISH to react to the above titled publication, which appeared in the Daily Graphic of Tuesday 17th July 2007, supposedly written by one Mr. Raymond Tamakloe.

We have said time after time that the citizenry of Anlo know their history, tradition and culture. No amount of spine doctoring will make them accept the unacceptable.

In the realm of the Awoamezi, there is no position as a Regent or Fiadomegatala. A regent in Anlo traditional practice and usage is a family arrangement, and the person so appointed cannot act above and on top of chiefs who have been nominated, selected and enstooled by their Kingmakers.

The enstooled Chiefs whose Vacation Forms have been duly vetted by the Research Committee of the Regional House of Chiefs and finalized by the Research Committee of the National House of Chiefs before entry into the National Register of Chiefs.
Regents so appointed by such family arrangements go by their own names, such as Dumega Koliko, Regent to the Avutsu Stool. The name is not serialized. Unfortunately, Mr. Tamakloe's regent is given the name and serialized number of a Chief who is yet to be installed.

Mr. Tamakloe, your regent cannot be the acting Awoamefia and Overlord of the whole of the Anlo State. His purported selection and appointment on I

1st, February 2003, attracted lots of reactions from the known and established Elders and Principal members of the Royal Adzorvia Clan.

In the forms of a letter dated 2nd March 2003 to Mr. Francis Nyonyo Agboada declaring his selection a nullity, a petition to the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, Ho filed on 13lh March 2003, seeking a declaration that "the nomination or selection of Francis Nyonyo Agboada as Togbi Sri III (Fiadomegatala) is wrongful and contrary to the customs and traditional practices of Anlo and is therefore void ab initio. A perpetual injunction to restrain Mr. Francis Nyonyo Agboada from beng recognised or referred to as Togbi Sri III (Fiadomegatala).

The petition is still pending before the Regional House. And a disclaimer " denouncing his regency status for the Awoamezi and to desist from using the titles Togbi Sri I, Togbi Sri 11 and Togbi Sri III all belonging to the Anlo Paramountcy. Furthermore, calling on the general public not to recognize or accord him such regal status".

What an irony, an Amlade man being purportedly selected to be a regent for an Adzorvia Stool. Mr. Napoleon Agboada, who is the chief architect of this regency saga, owes the citizenry of Anlo lots of explanations.

Where on earth is from the three-member regency board instituted after the death of Togbi Adeladza 1I, Mr., Tamakloe is alluding to? He should check the records properly before coming into the open.

It is on record that the Daily Graphic of Friday May 29th, 199, carried a publication that Mr. V.C.K. Agboada was selected a Regent to the Awoamezi on the 16th May 1998, under the Stool name Togbi Sri III, while the late Togbi Adeladza was still in the morgue. Is this different from the regency board'?

Mr.V. C. K. Agboada was arraigned before the three War Wings of the Anlo State and a very heavy fine imposed on him. He was ordered to retract the publication and to apologize to the Anlo State, It is very ironical for the same V.C.K. Agboada and his nephew, Napoleon Agboada to lead few of their nephews and cousins into deceiving the people of Anlo and the Ghanaian public that the three Gates of the Adzorvia Clan have selected and installed Francis Nyonyo Agboada as Regent T'ogbi Sri III on 1st February, 200.

The Chieftaincy Act 1971 Act 370 is the ultimate law, which governs the Chieftaincy Institution in Ghana and for that matter all Traditional Areas and Councils in the country. The Anlo Traditional Council is no exception.

The Act stated in Section 14 (I) "Subject to the provision of this section, a Traditional Council shall consist, in addition to the PRESIDENT, OF PERSONS SHOWN IN "THE National Register of Chiefs as the members thereof".

The Chieftaincy Institution by law does not have room for regents. Therefore the membership of the Volta Regional is not even interested in who is a regent. What transpired at the General Meeting of the House on 21st June 2007 as reported by the Ghana News Agency and chiefs at the meeting was giving an interpretation to the law, Chieftaincy Act, 1971 Act: 3 70.

The Issue is not whether the House did discuss anything on the Anlo Awoamezi and for that matter the Anlo Regency. The Issue is giving an interpretation and meaning to the Act. Therefore, a non-chief cannot be a member of a Traditional Council and further more holding himself as an Acting President or President. The law is as plain and transparent as water, no ambiguity for legal arguments.

The moles in the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, who have been aiding in the abuse of the Act, are presumably the very ones who wrote the article. Mr. Tamakloe who claimed authorship to the article is not a member or staff of the House. How did he come by the minutes and programmes he is referring to?

Please leave Togbe Tepre Hodo and Nana Soglo Alloh out of your arguments. They are traditional authorities duly recognized by the law of the Chieftaincy Institution.

If Mr. Tamakloe is referring to the so-called Reconstitution of the Anlo Traditional Council meeting of 27th June 2003, then I have news for him. Togbi Addo III, Fiaga of Klikor under whose Chairmanship Mr. Francis Agboada was introduced as the Regent and acting President the Anlo Traditional Council as alleged, wrote a Rejoinder to a Daily Graphic publication, Monday May 29th 2006, "Re: DON'T MEDDLE IN ANLO CHIEFTAINCY AFFAIRS". The Rejoinder, which the Editor of the Daily Graphic refused to publish for reasons best known to him.

Here is an excerpt from the Rejoinder, as summarized by Togbi Addo.

"A brief summary of the issue before us is:"

On 27th of June, 2003, Mr. Francis Nyonyo Agboada was brought to the council by the Awoamezi stool father, Mr. Egle Agboada and other members of The Adjorvia Clan, to the members of the Anlo Traditional Council for recognition as the newly-appointed Regent to the Awoamezi of Anlo.

He was accepted as a co-opted member of the Anlo Traditional Council as has been the case for regents to stools whose occupants are permanent members of the Anlo Traditional Council.

Members of the Traditional Council as well as others chiefs outside the Council knew that Francis Nyonyo Agboada was received by the Anlo Traditional Council as a regent and not a chief. This idea is made clear in paragraph 3 of the two chiefs who claim they were speaking on behalf of the eleven fiagawo of Council for they talk of the "tarnishing the image and repudiation of the Regent for the Awoamezi""

A regent's name is not serialized. For example, when Mr. Avevor became the Regent to the Awadada stool of Anlo.

The serialized name that the Regent has adopted was criticized at earlier meetings at Sogakope. But our genuine criticisms fell on deaf ears.

It is a genuine fear among the Anlo public that our Regent is trying to become the Awoamefia by tricks. But one does not become a chief by tricks in Anlo.

The dubbing of tile Regent as Torgbui Sri III by the Registrar is damnable blunder.

The Registrar should know that the Regent is not a Chief and therefore should not take directives from him. He should also stop referring to the Regent, as the Acting President of Anlo Traditional Council.

The Registrar should refer to the Chieftaincy act, ACT 370, for guidance"
Mr. Tamakloe, there you are, from Togbi Addo's own pen.

Officialdom, which has been feed with falsehood to support the regent and keep him afloat to this point, is also coming to terms with the truth and the reality on the ground.

Mr. Raymond Tamakloe, if you really exist, and the author of the article, the citizenry of Anlo want the full compliment of their three Wing Chiefs (Dusi. Dome and Mia) to prepare the grounds for a substantive Awoamefia. Where is the Miafiaga? That should be your preoccupation,

The Anlo citizenry and the reading public are tired with this spine doctoring. There should be a stop to it.
Thank you for the space.

Kofi Agbetorwoka
For and on behalf of the concerned citizenry of Anlo