Nii Appiah (right) addrssing the press. With him are other kingmakers.
THE Kingmakers from Ngleshie Alata (Jamestown), Paramount Stool in Ga Mashie have reiterated that Oblempong Wetse Kojo II, who was enstooled on February 1, 2018 after satisfying all the necessary customary processes, was still the recognized sworn-in chief of the stool.
They, therefore, maintained that any attempt to altercate such an arrangement would constitute an illegality and aberration of traditional norms and practices of the area.
At a media briefing in Accra on Saturday to make clear their position after the burial of the late Oblempong Nii Kojo Ababio, the immediate paramount chief of the area, a few weeks ago, the kingmakers said they have had the hint that certain individuals by their machinations, seem bent on plunging Ngleshie Alata into the abyss of chieftaincy disputes which has become a common occurrence in the Ga State.
The Kingmakers at the media briefing were Nii Sampah Kojo XI, the Osiahene and Head of the Kingmakers, Nii Sackey Akumiah VI, the Adanse Mantse who is also acting Dzasetse of the Ngleshie Alata as well as the Head of the 1st Royal Ruling House of Wetse Kojo We (Mantse We), Nii Appiah V, the Paramount Stool Father and Head of Appiah We, Nii Sackey Ansah, a Kingmaker of the Paramount Stool, and Nii Klemekuku VI, the Head of the 2nd Ruling House of Adjumanku Dawuranpong (Kofi Akrashie We).
According to them, their positions as Kingmakers of the Ngleshie Alata Paramount Stool were clearly defined by the 1929 Native Ordinance issued by the British Colonial Government after a well researched inheritance succession of the stool.
Speaking on behalf of the assembly of Kingmakers, the Dzase of the Paramount Stool, Nii Appiah, explained that the argument that had characterised the enstoolment of Nii Wetse Kojo that a chief could not be installed before the burial of the predecessor (in this case Oblempong Kojo Ababio) was alien to Ngleshie Alata customary practices “since the occupants of the stool were nominated, elected, installed and enstooled in accordance with Akan culture and matrilineal system.”
He said as such, chiefs of the stool ascend to the stool matrilineally and unlike other chiefs of the Ga State, Ngleshie Alata chiefs did not wear white beads (afli) on their wrist and also celebrate the Homowo subtly, only to climax it with the marking of Odwira with the chiefs riding in palanquin through the principal streets of the area, an exceptional customary practice in Ga Mashie enclave.
He said that surprisingly, pursuant to their adherence to rule of law to establish, the otherwise true process of enstooling a chief in Ngleshie Alata, some of the traditional council members and their cohorts after the burial of Oblempong Kojo Ababio, were scheming to install and fast-track the gazzetting of another person as chief.
Nii Appiah said such a move would be tantamount to customary desecration of the stool since those members of the traditional council and their non-royal cohorts did not have the capacity to undertake such a deed when it was exclusively reserved for the kingmakers of the two Royal Ruling Houses of Ngleshie Alata.
He said the Kingmakers vehemently opposed to the situation where the Chieftaincy institution was being reduced to a level of being a commodity on the market with the highest bidder for the take.
Nii Appiah said no amount of intimidation would cow the genuine intent of the kingmakers in ensuring that the choice of the person they have rightly enstooled, was thwarted by any parochial interest.
BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI
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