Osu Homowo: Rival chiefs clash

Supporters of Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI and Nii Nortey Owuo, who are claimants to the Osu Traditional Area stool, have clashed at this year’s Homowo Festival underway at Osu in Accra.

The Homowo, which means “hooting at hunger”, is celebrated annually after the harvest season across all Ga communities in the Greater Accra Region.

As custom demands, the Osu Chief is mandated to sprinkle the traditional food known as “kpoikpoi” through the principal streets of the area. However, at the climax of the festival in Osu on Tuesday, August 22, the two leaders who have been contesting the stool in court for years embarked on the exercise separately.

But a clash ensued as Nii Okwei Kinka VI, who doubles as the President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, sprinkled “kpoikpoi” through the Osu Ashante streets, one of the blocks in Osu; the same place where Nii Nortey Owuo had also gone to sprinkle the traditional food.

Though the rival leaders had heavy police and military escorts, this did not stop their supporters who embarked on stone throwing and other exchanges prompting the police to fire warning shots.

Class News reporter, Nii Otinkorang Ankrah, who witnessed the clash said the security had to allow passage of the leaders to sprinkle the “kpokpoi” in turns after one leader had finished with the exercise.