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17.03.2009 Politics

Council of State Member In Trouble

By Daily Guide
Council of State Member In Trouble
17.03.2009 LISTEN

Ghanaian Coat Of Arm SOME CONCERNED citizens of the Ahanta Traditional Area in the Western region yesterday stormed the offices of DAILY GUIDE in Takoradi, to protest against the appointment of Nana Baidoo Bonsoe XV, Paramount Chief of the Traditional Area, as a member of the Council of State.

The group, who pleaded anonymity, pointed out that the paramount chief is an ex-convict who served three days in jail after which his counsel and other prominent personalities in the region pleaded with the court to release him after he had signed an undertaking.  

The undertaking, dated  April 17, 2000, a copy of which is in the custody of DAILY GUIDE , read as follows: “I, Nana Baidoo Bonsoe XV, Paramount Chief of Busua and President of Ahanta Traditional Council, do hereby undertake not to interfere with the exercise by Nana Busumakora II, of his chiefly duties as a Chief of Takoradi”.

The concerned citizens have therefore appealed to President John Evans Atta Mills to spare the region any shame by excluding the chief's name from the list of appointed members of the Council of State.  

They stressed that it would be extremely suicidal and out of place to have an ex-convict as  an advisor to the President and that they would seek the court's intervention, should he go ahead to swear Nana Baidoo Bonsoe as a Member of the Council of State.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the paramount chief of the Ahanta Traditional Area, a staunch member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), joined one Nana Yaw Nketsia who once claimed to be the chief of Takoradi, to litigate against and interfere in the affairs of the substantive chief of Takoradi, Osahene Busumakura III and the case was sent to the Sekondi High Court.

The source said the High Court ordered Nana Baidoo Bonsoe XV not to interfere with the affairs of the chief of Takoradi again and was asked by the court to sign an undertaking to that effect, a copy of which was given to DAILY GUIDE for verification.

A Sekondi High Court on November 22, 1982, asked the paramount chief to cause the name of Nana Busomakura to be published in the Local Government bulletin as the chief of Takoradi but he ignored the court order until December 27, 1996, after he had been convicted of contempt of court.

According to the court's ruling, Nana Baidoo Bonsoe after the proceedings went back to confer with his sub-chiefs and resolved not to comply with the court order and served the court with a copy of their resolutions in which they threatened bloodshed in the area.

In its ruling on April 14, 2000 at the Sekondi High Court, in a case of the Republic versus Nana Baidoo Bonsoe XV, the paramount chief and two others were convicted to 30 days imprisonment for disrespecting the court order.

The court presided over by Justice S.K Asiamah, fined the other two respondents in the case, who were registrars of the Ahanta Traditional Council, one million old cedis or in default be jailed 30 days, while Nana Baidoo Bonsoe was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment.

The source told DAILY GUIDE that it took the intervention of counsel for Nana Baidoo Bonsoe, and certain prominent personalities in the Western region who pleaded with the court on his behalf, before the court reduced the sentence to three days.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi

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