Chief is impeached for insulting subjects

Gomoa

The chief of Gomoa Ekwamkrom, Nana Ekwam VIII, was instantly destooled by his subjects after he shockingly insulted them using an akan profanity openly at a meeting, reports the Ghanaian Mirror of 6 January 1996.

The meeting had been called to enable the chief account for C780,000 allegedly misappropriated by him. Reading the statement of accounts, Abusuapanin Kofi Buabeng stated that the "Oman" was demanding the sum of c780,000 from land sales and c258,529 representing an amount Nana is said to have withdrawn from the town's bank account. The chief got up and replied that he had nothing to pay the Oman and denied making any previous promises to pay.

Obaahemaa of the town, Okomfo Asaba, then rose to her feet to address the meeting and drew the attention of the chief to their last meeting in October when he made the pledge.

Nana Ekwam shouted the old lady down and called her a liar. He said he was not staying any further for the meeting because he has to attend to a "sick aunt" to which a voice from the gathering shouted "which aunt" and the chief replied "your mother".

The meeting then degenerated into verbal exchanges but matters came to a halt when Nana shouted: "All of you, your mothers' genital". For almost one whole minute the meeting was silent as everyone was shell shocked by the insult.

The chief then walked out of the meeting but before he could turn in the direction of his palace a group of about 20 men knocked him down and removed his cloth and sandals to signify one of the the cultural methods of impeachment. Wishing to avoid violence, the men handed over the cloth and sandals to an elder who was walking with the chief.

Confirming their story to the Mirror, the men said that the chief was fond of using foul language whenever he was cornered.

The Assemblyman of the area, Mr Pamford Quainoo, told the press that the chief had sold eleven plots of land illegally but what precipitated the discord was his attempt to sell a double plot belonging to the Methodist School and part of the town's cemetery.