Twifo Hemang chiefs reject DCE nominee

The Twifo Hemang Traditional Council, which is one of the two paramountcies in the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District, has vehemently kicked against the nomination of Nana Kweku Abban as the District Chief Executive.

Subsequently, the Council, led by the paramount chief, Otumfuo Amoah Sasraku IV, has performed a ritual in which a ram was slaughtered, to express their disapproval of government’s nominee.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, Otumfuo Sasraku indicated that the Council’s opposition to the nominee stemmed from the fact that he (nominee) has disparagingly disrespected the paramountcy.

He, therefore, appealed to the president to take steps to revoke Nana Kweku Abban’s nomination because the Traditional Council, on whose land the office is situated, would not accept him.

Background

Giving further clarifications on the matter, Otumfu? Sasraku IV explained that the nominee, who once served as the Presiding Member of the same district, posited that all Hemang lands were state lands.

According to him, Nana Abban further went to the chief’s palace with some officials from the Lands Commission to lay claim of all Hemang Lands, but the chiefs opposed him and gave historical antecedents of their lands.

He alleged that though they took their time and explained the issues to Nana Abban, he (Nana Abban) went to the Assembly and passed some disparaging comments about the paramountcy.

Invitation by the chiefs

According to the chief, several invitations were extended to the nominee when he allegedly made the supposed ‘disrespectful’ comments about the paramountcy, but he refused to honour any in total disrespect.

He stated that for the past two years “Nana Kweku Abban has disrespected, insulted and abused Nananom of the Twifoman Traditional Area”.

All attempts and efforts to bring the said Nana Kweku Abban before Nananom for him to answer questions on disrespect, disregard and abuse to the authorities of Nananom has failed,” he added.

He continued, “he does not owe allegiance, regard and respect to Nananom of Twifo Traditional Area, therefore, he will not appear before us. We lodged our complaint with the authorities of the district assembly, but they came here to inform us that he, Nana Kweku Abban, has refused any advice to appear before Nananom”.

According to him, the move to reject the nominee was not meant to challenge the authority of the president to nominate, but it was meant to illustrate how they have been disrespected in the last two years.

He said, “We are establishing our dislike of the promotion of a disrespectful person to come to be our DCE…We want to communicate respectfully to our dear president,” that they needed a respectful person as a nominee.

He stressed that they only needed someone who would regard the institution of chieftaincy and respect traditional authorities, but not a disrespectful individual.

Nana Hemaa’s remarks

The queen mother of the traditional area, Nana Adwoa Obeng Aso II, explained that the appointment of any disrespectful person as a DCE would have a bearing on how the young ones would respect the elderly in the district.

This, she noted, was due to the fact that the younger ones always learned from the elderly therefore there was a higher possibility that the character of any DCE would have an impact as far as respect of authority was concerned.

Nominee’s response

In a brief response to the issue in an interview with The Chronicle, Nana Kweku Abban refuted the claims that he has ever passed disparaging comments about the chiefs of the Twifo Hemang Traditional Council while he was the Presiding Member.

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