Has Old Age Robbed Kumawu-Bodomase Chief of his Senses?

Wisdom in the Akan belief generally comes with maturity. Nevertheless, some adages have it that “Old age is not an indication of wisdom” and “Grey hair is not a repository of wisdom”

The Kumawu-Bodomase chief, Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa, who doubles as the Kumawu Nifahene, is appearing to be a living example giving credence to the above cited proverbs. He is well advanced in life. He may be 90 years or in his late 80s.

What has he done that has incurred the wrath of Rockson, inciting him to put out this publication, one may ask? As a caretaker chief of Kumawu-Bodomase according to the information available to him and the facts he is privy to, Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa is behaving irresponsibly intransigent as if he did not know the history of Kumawu-Bodomase and how his family with himself came to occupy the Kumawu-Bodomase stool.

I am not going to narrate the history about how his family or he came to occupy the stool as a caretaker but his recently extremely annoying action towards the owners of the stool.

 It is the custom that when the chief of Kumawu-Ananangya dies, he is buried at a place in Bodomase called “ebanmu”. This place is specifically earmarked for their burial. However, Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa, is refusing the internment of the remains of the late Nana Damte, the chief of Ananangya, who passed away somewhere in 2017, in the Bodomase “ebanmu”.  

He says, he will not allow Nana Damte’s remains to be buried there for stupid reasons only known to him. Then again, he says he will only permit his burial there if and only if, the relatives of Nana Damte who are the true owners of not only the Kumawu-Bodomase stool but also, those of Kumawu and Ananangya, do inform, and seek the permission of, Dr Yaw Sarfo, the person styling himself as Kumawuhene and going by the stool name Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua.  What a blasphemy committed by Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa!

He claims he had won an Appeal Court suit against him on contempt of court charge brought against him by some elders of the Kumawu Ananangya and Odumase royal families. Again, he claims Dr Yaw Sarfo had won a High Court case preferred against him by same elders on his questionable enstoolment as Kumawuhene hence his order to the relatives of the late Nana Damte.

Let Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa understand the following. Firstly, the contempt of court case he claims to have won was not correctly presented. The lawyer for the plaintiffs was challenging the legality of the court that handled the initial contempt of court case against. According to the lawyer, that court had no jurisdiction to handle the case since it had originally gone to the High Court. The Appeal Court threw out his Statements of Claims and submissions saying that the lower court has the right to hear the case. All the while, the Notice of Service of interlocutory injunction on Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa barring him from participating in any attempts by Dr Yaw Sarfo to swear himself in as Kumawuhene-elect had mysteriously disappeared from both the files in the Kumasi High Court registry and that of the plaintiffs’ lawyer. What a miraculous coincidence that was to let him off the hook!

However, as I write, I have a photocopy of the registration of the Notice of Service on Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa exactly as entered in the trial docket of the Kumasi High Court, in my possession. I can at any time use it to prefer a case of perverting the course of justice charge against him. He had told the court he was never served any notice that was why he was the sole Kumawu kingmaker that sat in the hurriedly, but dubiously arranged estoolment of Dr Yaw Sarfo as Kumawuhene-elect.

Secondly, someone I trust so much has confided in me that Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa had himself told that person that he was actually served the interlocutory injunction well before he sat in the process that enthroned Dr Yaw Sarfo as the Kumawuhene-elect.

Has Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa not told some people that he is old and about to die so he will tell the truth hence acknowledging to some people that he was indeed served the notice? If he were, why did he lie to the court that he was not served any such notice?

If old age has robbed him of his mind, he risks a trial for perverting the course of justice because I have the necessary documentary evidence that he was served the notice he denied in court to have been served.

Has Dr Yaw Sarfo won any High Court case that has legitimised him as Kumawuhene upon all the criminal conventional and statutory illegalities surrounding his enstoolment without me, Rockson Adofo, knowing? Nana Balfour Atta Tweneboa is only hallucinating. He is playing with fire and fire will soon engulf him.

Nana Damte will be buried in his ancestral place of birth according as laid down custom and procedure demands.

I hope Osibisa’s song “Fire will burn you” as cited in the YouTube link below will serve as a nice warning to him to refrain from his preposterous stance taken, and as narrated above.

Rockson Adofo