[ 2011-11-28 ]

Odehye Kwame Agyei Boateng

I wont pay 72 sheep...
Okyehene's accuser, Odehye Kwame Agyei Boateng,
stormed Kyebi on Saturday, a day after the Abuakwa
Traditional Council fined him 72 sheep and 36
cartons of schnapps for denigrating and
desecrating the Ofori Panin stool.

He went there ostensibly to swear the
‘Okyeman Ntamkese’ oath right in front of
the Okyenhene’s palace and dared Osagyefuo
Amoatia Ofori Panin again to do same if indeed he
did not know anything about the galamsey
activities going on at Kyebi and its environs.

Reacting to the fine that was imposed on him by
the Abuakwa Traditional Council, Odehye Kwame
Agyei Boateng said he would never pay any fine
because the council had fined the wrong person.

“The traditional council should rather fine the
Okyenhene for the calamity he is bringing on the
Abuakwa state and rather give me the 72 sheep and
32 cartons of schnapps to appease me for referring
to me as a ‘nonentity’ from Kyebi who does not
matter in the Asona royal family,” he said.

He therefore described the fine by the Abuakwa
Traditional Council as the “biggest joke of the
century”.

Violence is said to have broken out after he had
gone through the rituals by slaughtering a sheep
and swearing the deity on Saturday.

Daily Guide's information indicates that the youth
were angered by the action of Odehye Kwame Agyei
Boateng and attacked the constituency secretary of
the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Bampoe, and his
women’s organizer who were travelling in a
Mitsibushi pick-up donated by the NPP Member of
Parliament for the area, Samuel Atta Akyea.

The group were said to have accosted the two who
were in the car, flattened the tyres and
mercilessly beat them up because, according to the
youth, the NPP car was sighted at the palace where
Odehye Agyei Boateng swore the deity to challenge
the Okyenhene to prove his innocence in the
illegal mining activities going on at Kyebi and
its surrounding areas.

Taking a political twist, they alleged that Hon
Atta Akyea was part of what they described as a
‘conspiracy’ to cause disaffection for the
Okyenhene and that he (Atta Akyea), a royal from
Ofori Panin Fie, was the one ‘hiding behind’
Odehye Kwame Agyei Boateng to ‘disgrace’ the
Okyenhene.

Odehye Kwame Agyei Boateng however told DAILY
GUIDE yesterday that he was not being influenced
by Atta Akyea or any other royal of the Asona
family, saying he was very mature to know what was
wrong or right.

“In 1999, when I was about 32, I was nominated
as one of the heirs to the Okyenhene’s stool and
contested the stool with Amoatia Ofori Panin but
Owuraku Amofa and his cohort who was then in
political power favoured Amoatia Ofori Panin for
him to be made the Okyenhene,” he alleged.

He explained that there was no point in blaming
Atta Akyea for his action and that if the youth or
the people of Kyebi did not understand the reasons
behind his actions, they should rather confront
him and not anyone else.

“I am concerned as a royal citizen of Kyebi and
I strongly believe our ancestors will not even
forgive us if those of us concerned about what is
going on do not do anything about this disgraceful
act of galamsey,” he said, alleging that even
the royal cemetery at Banso was being desecrated
with impunity as chainsaw operators had been
felling trees indiscriminately at the ‘sacred’
cemetery.

He said the recent flooding in the Akyem area that
was caused by the Birim river, as a result of
illegal mining either along the banks of the river
or on the bed of the river, should be a reminder
that a greater ‘calamity’ was awaiting Okyeman
because the river god was angry over the
destruction of the Birim river as a result of the
galamsey operations in the Akyem state.

“They are saying that Odwira festival would be
celebrated this year so which water from the Birim
would they use to bathe the Odwira?” he
questioned, indicating that the elders who were
watching all these ‘wrongs’ to go on in the
Abuakwa state would be made to answer one day by
the ancestors.

It would be recalled that at an emergency meeting
by the Akyem Abuakwa Council on Friday, the
council, which had summoned Odehye Kwame Agyei
Boateng to come and substantiate the allegations
made against Okyenhene, fined Odehye Agyei Boateng
for failing to appear before it, denigrating the
Ofori Panin stool and joking with the ‘Okyeman
Ntamkese’ on radio.

Source - Daily Guide

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