We will resist moves to give chief royal burial - faction

Kumasi, April 7, GNA - A faction in the protracted Tuobodom chieftaincy dispute has warned against moves to give a royal burial to the late Nana Sofour Yaw II, a rival chief said to have been imposed on the town by the Omanhene of Techiman Traditional Area.

The Takyiwafiri (Krotia) Ekuona royal family, which claims to be the sole rightful owners of the Tuobodom stool, had vowed to use every means to prevent the performance of burial rites for him as Tuobodomhene.

Nana Yaw Kontoh, the Abusuapanin, told a press conference in Kumasi on Wednesday that Nana Sofour who died two months ago was not and had never been the legitimate chief of the town because he was not from the royal family.

"He was the Akyempimhene to the Techimanhene with Techiman as his traditional area," he said, citing the Local Government bulletin number 23 of October 14, 1988, published after his installation".

Nana Kontoh held that the late Nana Amo Gyeabour II, who died two years ago whilst in exile in Kumasi, was the legal chief of the town. He died following disturbances caused by the elevation of four stools in the Tanosubin area into paramountcy by the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II in 1996.

He said it was therefore regrettable that the political authorities in the Brong-Ahafo region refused to allow the performance of the necessary customary rituals to accord him fitting royal burial. The Abusuapanin, who said he had been acting as traditional head of the town since the death of Nana Gyeabour, asked the Techiman paramountcy to stop laying claim to towns and lands in the Tanosubin area for peace to prevail there.

He also renewed the appeal to the government to bring "to justice all those involved in the murder, maiming and burning of houses during the mayhem visited on Tuobodom in 1996".

Two people, including a JSS pupil, were killed while several others got injured and 15 houses burnt during the disturbances. "Nothing could be a more painful revulsion than to see those who committed the crimes walking the streets as free people," Nana Kontoh added.