Tension mounts at Berekum

Berekum (B/A) Aug. 17, GNA- Police cum military personnel averted a clash between factions in the Berekum chieftaincy dispute on Monday as reports filtered in that some kingmakers had installed another Omanhene and were taking him to the palace.

Hundreds of residents converged near the palace and in the streets whilst some armed police personnel and soldiers took vantage positions in the town to forestall any clashes.

Some of the residents said some of the roads in the town were closed in the morning and drivers had to make a detour through other roads in the town to their destinations in other parts of the region.

A circuit court at Fiapre, near Sunyani on Friday, August 13 restrained seven kingmakers led by the Krontihene, Nana Ofori Appiah 11, from nominating, electing and installing a rival Omanhene in Berekum Traditional Area.

The court order followed its acceptance of a motion filed by the police that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that the intended installation of a rival Omanhene by the seven kingmakers would undermine security and peace in the area.

The presiding judge, Mr Justice John Kwadwo Owusu-Gyamfi ordered the kingmakers to suspend the installation and gave them one month to settle the disagreement using the appropriate channels of mediation and then to re-apply to the police for a permit for the installation.

Dr Leo Ofori, a surgeon at the Regional Hospital in Sunyani was on July 9, this year, installed as Omanhene of the area, under the stool name Daasebre Dr Amankona Diawuo 11, to succeed Nana Yiadom Boakye 11 who died on October 9, 1999.

The Krontihene on August 9 this year notified the police of the intention of the seven kingmakers to nominate, elect and install Nana Nyamekye as another Omanhene and the police filed the motion against that.

Meanwhile a police source at Berekum told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that a number of people had been arrested but declined to identify them and indicated that all was calm in the town as the security forces were still doing a 24-hour patrol in the town.