Help us resolve our chieftaincy dispute, it's retarding our development – Dwan queen-mother to gov’t
The Queen-mother of the Dwan Traditional Area in the Sene District of the Bono East region, Nana Narbi Dengah, is calling on government to intervene in the prolonged chieftaincy dispute in the area to restore peace and facilitate speedy development.
In her view, the absence of one paramount chief acceptable to all feuding parties is fast retarding the progress of the area, which is considered one of the most deprived districts in the country.
The Queen-mother told our reporter in an exclusive interview at Kwame Danso last Saturday that after the king-makers of the Dwan Traditional Council had enskinned Nana Okofrobour Kwakye Danso Acheampong II in June 2017 as the rightful and legitimate Paramount Chief of the area, another group of persons purportedly also paraded one Nana Narbi Donkor as the chief of the area about a year later.
Legal tussle
This unfortunate development, according to her, has resulted in a legal tussle among the two feuding groups, thereby derailing the peace and development of the area.
The issue is currently pending at the Judicial Committee of the Bono East Regional House of Chiefs.
The queen-mother accused the Nana Narbi Donkor, the self-acclaimed parallel chief of undermining the progress of the Sene District by selling off lands to people without the knowledge and consent of the Dwan Traditional Council.
Besides, she accused him of aiding Fulani herdsmen to invade and destroy people’s farms with impunity.
“My major concern is that the Dwan Traditional Area should take its rightful position in the chieftaincy institution, I need someone to assist me push the development of the area forward, someone who will be readily available whenever the need arises.
“Look at our roads in the area, all of them are in deplorable conditions, the invasion of the Fulanis on our lands, the rampant felling of our trees for charcoal. The Fulanis have been emboldened by some disgruntled sub-chiefs to perpetrate all kinds of harm to innocent farmers.
“There have been instances when the Fulanis inflict cutlass wounds on innocent farmers but when you report them to the Police, nothing is done about it. A lot of our young men and women have no work to do. If there was one paramount chief with whom we can all reason together, we would know what steps to take to do something about it,” she intimated.
The poor road networks
The main highway linking Kwame-Danso, the district capital, to Atebubu appears to be the most talked-about road in the Bono East region. It was awarded on contract over a decade ago but virtually nothing has been done on the road, subjecting commuters to literally wallow in arenaceous dust with its attendant health challenges, especially during the harmattan.
A visit to the Sene West district by this reporter revealed that in addition to the main Kwame Danso – Atebubu highway, none of the major feeder roads in the district is motorable.
Some residents who spoke to this reporter recounted the ordeal pregnant women and lactating mothers as well as the rest of the people go through in traveling on such ‘death-trap’ roads in accessing health care services.
According to them, school children are forced to abandon classes during the raining season as a result of the worsening state of the roads in the area and so it comes as no surprise to them that the district’s performance in the Basic Education Certificate Examination over the years is also nothing to write home about.