THE COASTAL town of Prampram in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region witnessed drama last Friday when the paramount chief, Nene Tetteh Djan III, was held up in public and heckled.
Not only that, but part of shoes the chief was wearing was removed from his feet, blood from a slaughtered goat was poured on him, followed with gun fire.
After the scene in which elderly women stood between men in arm and their traditional leader, the paramount chief drove his Mercedes Benz car with registration GT9940C to seek refuge at the District Police Headquarters.
Nene Tetteh Djan III (known in private life as Mr. Thomas Tawiah Abbey) was enstooled about six years ago as Paramount Chief of the Prampram traditional area and Vice President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chief, Dodowa.
According to the Mankrado (Stoolfather), Nii Nartey IV, the paramount chief on ascension to the throne disregarded all suggestions made by members of the traditional council, and surrounded himself with only six elders out of 45. All attempts to have some divisional chiefs gazetted were allegedly thwarted by the chief.
Surprisingly to them, the paramount chief circulated letters last Thursday, summoning members of the traditional council to a meeting the following day and among topics to be discussed was gazetting the Chief of Afienyahe said, adding that since the paramount chief had refused to submit names of others to be gazetted, they decided to stop him in his tracks.
Word went to the surrounding villages of the intended meeting and so they came to lay ambush for the paramount chief, as he and some of the elders sat at the traditional council hall for the meeting.
The Mankrado (Stoolfather) said that when they asked him why he wanted to gazette the Afienya chief, when he had refused to do same for chiefs he came to meet, Nene Gyan III replied them with contempt.
According to him, since the chief returned from prison on contempt of court charges, all attempts to persuade him to abdicate the stool failed, as he contended that only a ritual performance can destool him.
They therefore saw last week as an opportunity to perform the ritual that signifies destoolment.
First, they held the chief by his trousers, removed his shoes, brought out a goat, cut the throat and poured the blood on him from the head to his chest.
To climax the ceremony, they brought out a gun and fired a shot to dethrone him.
When the Stool Queenmother, Naa Larbi Dede, 97, was contacted at Anorh-Wem, she dried her tears first and commented:
"After the paramount chief was enstooled, he allegedly spoke against indiscriminate sale of stool lands which he said should rather be leased so that their grandchildren could benefit in the future."
She mentioned that in 1996 during the electioneering campaign, the then President J.J. Rawlings visited Prampram, but failed to call on the paramount chief for reasons unknown, but then Presidential aspirant J.A.
Kufuor, campaigning, did call on him.
Since that time, the whole town, known to be National Democratic Congress (NDC) stronghold, perceived the paramount chief and the royal house as New Patriotic Party (NPP) sympathisers.
According to her, several moves were made in the town to destool Nene Tetteh Djan III and she was not surprised when he was sent to prison.
When the Stoolfather died recently, she proposed a youngman from the royal family to replace him but the other elders objected to it.
She stated emphatically that the process used last Friday at the traditional council meeting can not destool the paramount chief, noting that before he could be destooled, the Stool Queenmother and father must be aware and all means exhausted.
Disgracing him in public as they did was not proper and that Nene Tetteh Djan III is still the Paramount Chief of the Prampram Traditional Area.
Apart from Naa Larbi Dede Abbey, who sustained injury, Sarah Abbey, 72, Atsoi Martey, 87 and Mensah Devieh, 35 suffered one way or the other.
Sarah Abbey said that she stood between one Nartey Odonkor, who pulled and fired a gun at the chief.
She was heckled and lost her two teeth, report which was made to the police.
Mensah Devieh was allegedly dragged on the street and had bruises on the right thigh, while Atsoi Martey, 87, had contrusion on the face.
The paramount chief, whose car boot was had blood, probably from the goat, and was wearing off-white coloured socks, pair of trousers and holding his torn shirt, said that he is still the paramount chief.
According to him, he went to hold meeting with his elders when the attack took place.
Police have arrested two persons and are helping in their investigations, while the paramount chief was issued with a police medical form to attend the Tema General Hospital.
He is reported to have left for his Kumasi base
