I didn't give Kenyase chief any gift - DCE replies Chronicle

The District Chief Executive for Kwabre East District in the Ashanti Region has described as blatant lies, reports suggesting that he had been embarrassed in his attempt to reconcile with the Chiefs and people of Kenyase.

This follows the violent clashes that ensued Monday between the police and angry town folk who took to the streets in protest against bad state of the main Bonwire – Antoah – Kenyase Road.

What was intended to be a peaceful demonstration turned berserk when the angry drivers mounted road blocks and set tyres ablaze in the middle of the road obstructing traffic from the area to the regional capital Kumasi.

The police intervened and were compelled to fire both live and rubber bullets as well as tear gas to disperse the angry crowd. The police later had to call in reinforcement from the rapid deployment force.

The Chronicle edition of Thursday reported that the Chief of Kenyasi, Barima Owusu Agyemang, had rejected a gift purported to have been given to him by the DCE Iddisah Adams to compensate him for damages caused to his town during the standoff.

But the DCE who has vehemently denied the report told Ultimate Radio he was at the chief’s palace with members of the District Security Council to address the issues that arose as a result of the protest.

“When we got to the chief’s palace, the Nana Nkosuohene as well as the Chief Linguist having listened to our mission ushered us in to see Nana. He received us nicely and warmly and we never sent any gifts as was purported” he emphasized.

He added that the Kenyase East and the Kenyase West assembly members as well as the Antoah and Abirem assembly members witnessed the discussion between his delegation and the chief’s interactions. He said the teachers of the Kenyase DA School which was caught up in the clashes were also around to meet the chief just around that time and that he was “really flabbergasted to hear the story from the chronicle newspaper”.

“I was expecting that reporter to check his facts of the two sided story from the palace and from my office but he just went to sit down to cook the story just for his paper to sell” the disappointed DCE flared.

He charged the editor of the paper to sanction the reporter, adding that he had lost respect for the paper which he thought was credible. The Assembly member for Kenyase East, Hon. Osei Owusu, whom the DCE claimed was a witness to the interactions, also confirmed the DCE’s statement to Ultimate Radio.

According to him, the DCE and the District Police Commander visited the palace essentially to sympathize with the chiefs and people for what transpired there. He further explained that the DCE expressed worry especially for the destruction that was caused to the chief’s palace as police fired shots some of which caused destruction to the chief’s doors.

“He also came here to settle the controversy about his alleged involvement in bringing in the Rapid Deployment Force to terrorize the demonstrators. He even suggested a meeting be held with the leaders of the demonstrators to have a press conference to clear the air on speculations and state clearly that nobody died as has been reported. So the rumors going around that the DCE brought some gifts to the chief which were rejected are complete lies” the Hon. Osei Owusu narrated. © 2014 Grammarly, Inc. Loading...protest verb: 0.(intransitive) to make a strong objection0.(transitive) to affirm something0.(transitive mostly US) to object to.noun: 0.A formal objection, especially one by a group0.A collective gesture of disapproval, sometimes violent