NPP behind attempts to destool Kpone Mantse?

Credible information available to The Chronicle suggests that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is behind attempts to destool the paramount chief of the Kpone Traditional Area, Nii Tetteh Otu II.

According to our information, it had been the desire of the ruling government, since 1996, to kick the paramount chief out of power because top party functionaries believed that the chief was an NDC supporter, hence would use his position to influence his subjects to always vote against the NPP.

Some of the chiefs who spoke to The Chronicle said they would do everything possible to stop the move.

Talking to the paper in separate interviews, one of the chiefs said, ?We are aware of all the moves by the NPP to destool our paramount chief, but they would not succeed because there are laid down traditional and customary laws to destool a chief and because the paramount chief has not committed any ?destoolable? offence, they would lose in the end.?

The chiefs said they were convinced that the NPP government was behind the attempts to destool the paramount chief because the major players in the move were top NPP functionaries in the constituency.

They said one of the three plaintiffs who filed the contempt suit against the paramount chief at the Accra High Court, Seth Afum, was the polling station chairman of the party at Appolonia.

Mr. Joshua Abbam Tetteh, the spokesman for the group was the first vice chairman of the NPP in the constituency, and the acting chairman in the absence of the chairman, Mr. Manyo Plange, while Mr. John Tetteh, who was the MC for the group when they organized a press conference at Kpone to call for the immediate destoolment of the chief, was the constituency organizer of the party.

The chiefs stated further that after the two chiefs were released from the Nsawam prison, following their three-day custodial sentences, ex-president Rawlings went there in person to sympathize with them but the NPP, as a party, could not pay them a visit.

What hurt them most, according to one of them, was the fact that the Greater Accra regional minister, Sheikh I.C. Quaye had informed them that he was paying them a visit and so all the elders and chiefs in the traditional area had gathered at the traditional council?s premises, expecting him but he failed to turn up.

?Instead, he delegated the Tema Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. David Q Annan to come and apologize on his behalf for his inability to turn up?. Since, he has refused to come and meet us.

?All these are pointers to the fact that the ruling NPP government is using the so-called kingmakers to get our paramount chief, who is also the president of the Greater Accra regional house of chiefs, to be relieved of his position as paramount chief of Kpone,? the chief added.

Explaining further, the chief said it all started in 1996, when President Kufuor, then the flag bearer of the party, went to Kpone on a campaign trail and decided to visit the Kpone Traditional council to greet the chief and his elders but was prevented from entering the palace.

Their action did not go down well with the party hierarchy and so, during the 2000 electioneering campaigns, two of the constituency stalwarts, John Tetteh, organizer and Solomon Appiah, second vice chairman, went round the constituency preaching that when the NPP took over power, they would destool the paramount chief.

?And so if today, they are in power and the same people have initiated such moves, what further evidence do we need to convince us that they are behind the plot to destool our paramount chief?? he asked.

Meanwhile, Mr. Joshua Abbam Tetteh, the vice chairman and John Tetteh, the constituency organizer of the NPP have strongly denied the allegations, saying there was no iota of truth in them.

According to Abbam Tetteh, the fight against the Appolonia chief started way back in 1991, when the NDC was in power and he (Tetteh) was an ordinary member of the NPP.

He divulged that the one financing their legal battle against the chief, was the son of Alhaji Tettey Kwao and he was a strong NDC supporter. ?Those of us embroiled in this battle, come from different political persuasions, and we are determined to accomplish our mission of destooling the paramount chief,? he asserted.

Mr. Abbam Tetteh further stated that they were fighting because they had realized that the chief was taking the people for a ride and ?those of us who are enlightened and know that the chief has committed destoolable offences, would right all the wrongs by bringing him down.?