REJOINDER``PC Ofori vindicated?Chief exposes Asare-Donkoh``

Gomoa Akyempim Omanhene has actively engaged himself in the affairs of the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa Constituency New Patriotic Party (NPP) by becoming a supporter and Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Hon. P. C. Appiah-Ofori, the incumbent Member of Parliament for the area and one of the aspiring parliamentary candidates.

As part of his plan to destroy me to pave way for Hon. Appiah-Ofori, the Omanhene caused a story written by your reporter, Charles Takyi-Boadu, under the headline “PC Ofori vindicated? Chief exposes Asare-Donkoh” to be published on the front page of your paper on Monday, May 19, 2008.

I wish to draw your attention to the fact that the said story contains lies and falsehood and was also libellous and defamatory of me. In January 1992, the chiefs and people of Gomoa Abora, my father's hometown, honoured me by making me the Tufuhene of the community. As a common knowledge among the Fantis (including Gomoas), Tufuhene is an honourary title, a non-hereditary post with no stool attached to it.

On 23rd March, 2008, I abdicated my position of Tufuhene following the performance of the abdication rites prescribed by the community at Gomoa Abora. This was in compliance with the 1992 Constitution to enable me enter active politics.

There is no Odikro at Gomoa Abora. The only chief in the town is the Omankrado, who incidentally and unfortunately has had an accident and therefore was unavailable to exercise his role as a chief. In view of the peculiar situation of Gomoa Abora (without any chief), I, with the support of my Abusuapanyin, deemed it fit and respectful to immediately write to the Omanhene of the Traditional Area through the Adontenhene (my Divisional Chief), to inform him about my abdication. Following that my abdication was widely published in the media.

It must be noted however, that when a chief is destooled or abdicates, it becomes the duty and responsibility of the Abusuapanyin of the destooled or abdicated chief to inform the traditional council and not the destooled or abidicated chief. For instance, how can a chief who has been destooled by his community and therefore had ceased to be a chief, be dragged to the traditional council to performance any rites? It is therefore not the destooled or abdicated chief's duty to inform either the Omanhene or the traditional council.

Despite these facts the Omanhene had insisted on some radio stations that since my abdication was not done before him at the Traditional Council sitting at Gomoa Assin and rams slaughtered, he had not approved of my abdication and therefore the abdicational rites performed at Gomoa Abora were not valid.

This is unacceptable, since I did not need the Omanhene's approval before abdicating. No chief needs anybody's approval before abdicating, as nobody can force a chief who does not want to continue to be chief for whatever reasons, to stay on as a chief. The Omanhene can tell the world which parts of the Chieftaincy Act give him the authority and power to approve before a chief can abdicate on his own free will.

Following the Omanhene's radio interviews I went to him at his private house at Apam on Thursday, April 10, 2008 in the company of the Registrar of the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Council, Mr. Thomas Kwame Ewul, and my son and had a meeting with him. I therefore never went to the Omanhene's house on April 11 as published. That is a lie and I challenge him to proof me wrong.

At the meeting I pointed out to the Omanhene that his statement on radio was wrong and that if he was in doubt about my abdication he should have contacted the Abusuapanyin of Gomoa Abora, who holds and maintains the customs and traditions of Gomoa Abora, for any explanation instead of going to the media as he did.

At no time at the meeting with the Omanhene, did I kneel down before him almost in tears and asked him to authorise the Assistant Registrar to forge a letter for me, to present to the NPP Vetting Committee, as he is quoted in your story as saying. The Omanhene is also lying by saying “I was prepared to pacify him with whatsoever he would ask for in fulfilment of my request”. What the Omanhene caused you to publish was therefore a lie and I challenge him to substantiate this.

It is also not true that the Omanhene told me to accompany the Registrar to any chief for whatever reasons. This is another lie. After my meeting with the Omanhene, he on the following day caused a letter concerning myself headed “Introductory Letter”, Ref. No. GATC.97/Vol. IX dated 10th April, 2008 to be issued to Hon. Appiah-Ofori.

This action by the Omanhene was in complete violation and breach of the Chieftaincy Act, 1971, Act 370, Section 50 which requires that any person who wants any information about any chief shall apply to the Registrar of the National House of Chiefs or “a public officer authorised in writing by him”, and pay the prescribed fee before such information can be given to that person.

Section 50 (6) says inter alia: “Any other person shall, upon the payment of the fee prescribed in that behalf by regulations made, under section 62 of this Act, be entitled: (b) to have supplied to him an extract of the contents of the Register or any part thereof duly certified by the Registrar or any public officer authorised by him in writing to be true”.

Following the breach of this Chieftaincy Act, the Obirifo Ahunako Ahor Ankobea II, without realising the offence he and Hon. Appiah-Ofori had caused, began to move from one radio station to another castigating and disparaging me, and insisting that since my abdication was not done before him at the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Council he does not approve of it, despite the centuries old tradition that enstoolments, destoolments and abdications are normally held in communities and family houses and not at traditional council sittings, as the Omanhene is preaching on the airwaves.

After my letter to the Omanhene was received, it became appropriate that a reply to it was got since the ill-acquired letter given to Hon Appiah-Ofori was tended at the vetting in Cape Coast. I therefore went to the Registrar for a reply to my letter. The Registrar told me he would have to go to the Omanhene for discussion on the matter. The Registrar then went to the Omanhene's private residence to discuss my request (I was not present at the discussion) and according to the Registrar, he explained to the Omanhene that my abdication could not be linked to the information-giving (administrative) rites to be performed by my Abusuapanyin. He said he made the Omanhene aware that his (Omanhene's) minute asking him (Registrar) to let my Abusuapanyin perform some rites before my abdication could be approved, was therefore not in tune with the traditional practices. According to the Registrar an agreement was therefore reached between himself and the Omanhene before a letter Ref. No.GATC.97/Vol.IX/II/04/08 dated 11th April, 2008 titled “Abdication of Stool” was issued to me.

Therefore the Omanhene's allusions that I conspired with the Registrar to produce the letter given to me are lies and a falsehood. The Omanhene changed the decision he reached with the Registrar after Hon. Appiah-Ofori went back to him (Omanhene). This was a grand design by the Omanhene and Hon. Appiah-Ofori to give credence to the letter he had illegally issued to him (Hon. Appiah-Ofori).

The action and behaviour of the Omanhene is very unfortunate and most disgraceful and therefore questions his integrity, as the Registrar insists that he fully explained the right procedures to him and he agreed with him before he replied to my letter.

As a proof of the agreement between the Omanhene and the Registrar, the Omanhene caused a separate letter Ref. No. GATC.40/Vol.IV/01/08 dated 14th April, 2008 to be sent to my Abusuapanyin, copied to the Gomoa District Chief Executive, asking him (Abusuapanyin) “to appear before the Omanhene and his Executive on Friday, 25th April, 2008 at Gomoa Assin to perform the following abdication rites: (i) 3 bottles of imported schnapps; (ii) 3 live sheep; (iii) an amount of GHc300 or c3,000,000; and (iv) withdrawal of CD forms GHc50 or c500,000”, adding that “Your failure to perform the above rites will affect your future chieftaincy processes”.

Though, the quantum of this demand by the Omanhene has no precedent in the traditional practices of the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Area as far as the people of Gomoa Abora are concerned, my Abusuapanyin humbly complied with it and assembled all the items for presentation to the Omanhene. But due to the Omanhene's own secret agenda to destroy me for reasons best known to himself, he sent a verbal order to my Abusuapanyin less than 12 hours before the performance of the rites, “not to present the items because he (Omanhene) will not be at Gomoa Assin to receive them”.

Though the Omanhene has repeatedly linked these rites to be performed by my Abusuapanyin to my abdication, yet, he the same person stopped my Abusuapanyin from performing the rites without any explanation to him up to date.

And strangely, after the Omanhene had prevented my Abusuapanyin from performing the rites to 'complete my abdication rites' as he insists, he continues to say that I have not abdicated 'because I had not perform the rites'. How can the Omanhene refuse my Abusuapanyin the chance to perform the rites and at the same time insist that I have not abdicated? Is the Omanhene not engaging in double standards?

Again, If the Omanhene feels strongly that I, a citizen of Gomoa, cannot bring any benefit to him personally, and also the Gomoa area as he told me at his house, then, what motivates him to follow Hon. Appiah-Ofori from the same Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa constituency, but who has no blood relations with Gomoa Akyempim. What motivates the Omanhene to continue to disparage me? Doesn't the Omanhene see his behaviour as double standards? And by the way, how much has the Omanhene been paid by Hon. Appiah-Ofori for his loyal service to him (Appiah Ofori)? Definitely, we may know one day.

It is worth noting that the previous (late) Omanhene, Okukutan Ahunako Acquah, who was a former highly respected Brigadier in the Ghana Army, respected himself, and the high stool he occupied. He therefore respected his subjects without adopting any bullying methods and tactics which Obirifo Ahunako Ahor Ankobea II, who was recently enstooled, has adopted to bully and destroy me.

Much as I have respect for authority and the chieftaincy institution, I will not allow myself to be bullied and intimidated by him as he has tried to do with the publication in this paper. We live in a democracy and a civilised society and therefore chiefs like him who do not respect their high office in society and therefore behave disgracefully like he has done, do not deserve any respect from the society. I am therefore ready to bring him to order if he continues to disparage and castigate me.

I also wish to remind Obirifo Ahunako Ahor Ankobea II, that should he decides to abdicate tomorrow, he would not abdicate at the full sitting of the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Council as he had wanted me to do. Rather, he would abdicate in his own family house and his Abusuapanyin would have the responsibility of informing the council after he had abdicated and gone.

I therefore challenge him to substantiate all the lies he has said about me both in the story referred to above and on the airwaves. It is not any shame for him to take his time to learn more about the chieftaincy institution and the rules guiding traditional practices in order to avoid disgracing himself again in the same manner he has behaved towards me.

The Chronicle