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13.04.2007 General News

The Sene Charcoal War

13.04.2007 LISTEN
By (ghanaian-chronicle)

A LARGE number of people drawn from Bassa and Nkomi Traditional Areas in the Sene District of the Brong-Ahafo Region on Monday, April 2, took to the streets of Bassa to demonstrate against an earlier one embarked upon by a section of Kwame Danso youth.

According to the demonstrators, a careful observation of events preceding the March 29, 2007 action by the Kwame Danso youth revealed that the attempt to oust the District Chief Executive, Madam Cynthia Titiriku Danso from office was because she does not hail from their place.

They described accusations against the DCE as mischievous, baseless and unfounded, and well tailored to satisfy the whims and caprices of the people of Kwame Danso against the corporate good of the entire District.


A Spokesman of the Counter Demonstrators, Mr. Jones Nsiah Abronye, in a statement established the innocence of the DCE against an accusation that she had shown gross disrespect to the traditional authorities at Kwame Danso about lifting a ban on charcoal burning in the District.

Mr. Abronye, who is also the Assemblyman for Adesae Electoral Area, explained that the refusal of Mad. Danso to grant the request of the Kwame Danso Chiefs to the effect that the ban on charcoal burning be lifted, could not pass as disobedience and disrespect to traditional authority since it was beyond the powers of the DCE.

According to the statement, the Chiefs and their people cannot blame the DCE because there existed a byelaw of the Assembly that forbids charcoal burning in the District before she came into office as DCE.

The statement also dismissed another accusation against the DCE that she was practicing nepotism and cronyism in the District.


In the opinion of the counter demonstrators, it is gradually becoming a common feature of the people of Kwame Danso to truncate the office tenure of any DCE, who is from either Bassa or Nkomi area, but not Kwame Danso or Wiase.

According to them, Mr. Opoku Adusei, former District Secretary during the PNDC era was humiliated and beaten up on suspicion that he had Nkomi Traditional Area in his good books and was planning to establish a Secondary School at the area.

Messrs Oduro Yeboah and A. K. Siaw, who are from Bassa Traditional Area suffered demonstrations by the Kwame Danso people and were subsequently removed from office before their time.

Mad. Danso is facing the same trial because she hails from Bassa, whilst the likes of Messrs M. K. Mensah and Isaac Sunkwa Hyiaman completed their terms unabated, the demonstrators noted.

“From the chronicle of events in the District, we are of the view that the time has come for us to ask for a separate District in order to bring about lasting peace in the Sene area,” the demonstrators added.

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