A Call for Ghana Government and Judicial Service Investigations

Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna III Causing Instability in the Krachi East District to Cover-up His Fraudulent Land Compensation Claims Against the Republic of Ghana: A Call for Ghana Government and Judicial Service Investigations

By

Kwabena Agyekum, Adenta, Accra

The Government of Ghana (Executive Branch – Interior Ministry) and the Ghana Judiciary Service is being warned that if they fail to stop the corrupting influence of Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region, the good people of Ghana should not be surprised if the current tense atmosphere in the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area explode into conflict. In this piece, I will show how this dangerous man has managed to damage both the traditional chieftaincy and judicial institutions and must be stopped immediately before causing further damage.

On January 5, 2015 I published an article on Ghanaweb exposing the interference of Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna III in the Chieftaincy affairs of the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area that has resulted in continued tension in the area since 2009. In fact, in May 2014, a sub-chief in the Pai-Katanga Traditional area was found dead on his farm with gunshot wounds, with the circumstances leading to his death yet to be uncovered.

But Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna has used his influence as a former regional police commander to corrupt the traditional chieftaincy institutions and the Hohoe High Court. He has craftily used his police training to act as a straw man and shadowy figure, to insert himself in nefarious ways in the chieftaincy affairs of the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area. It is worth noting that Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besmuna III has no jurisdiction over the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area according to official GoG funded research of traditions of the area carried out in the early 1960s.

Who are the people of present day Pai-Katanga and the Pai Traditional area?

The people of the present day Pai-Katanga Traditional Area were resettled in the Krachi East District after the inundation of their ancestral homelands in the Pai-Traditional Area. The reason for the resettlement was the inundation of the ancestral homelands resulting from the construction of the Akosombo dam.

Now a short history of the Pai Traditional area! According to the traditions of the Afram Plains documented by Kwabena Ameyaw, there are five towns that make up the Pai Traditional Area. The towns that make up the traditional area are Pai Ahenkro (Wurubi), Motodua, Apaaso, Otiso and Supom (Ahenkro). The lands belonging to these five towns were consecrated and placed under the five Akan "black" stools awarded by Nana Diawuo, Omanhene of Kwahu Traditional Area at the end of the war campaign against Atara Firam, when the latter was defeated. Each of the five generals that fought with Nana Diawuo was given a black stool as their symbol of loyalty and authority over the land consecrated under his stool. Further, all the five black stools owed their allegiance to Nana Diawuo, Omanhene of Kwahu at Abene and the subsequent successors until the Germans broke the official tributes paid by the Pai Traditional area chiefs to the Omanhene of Kwahu Traditional Area. In spite of the prohibition that took place under the occupation of the area by the Germans around 1896, the people of the Pai Traditional Area still maintain customary rites between the two Traditional Areas to this day.

Despite these historical facts, Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III, has used his corrupt and immoral ways to try to recreate a traditional area that has not existed historically. His tool of choice is the destooled chief of Pai-Katanga Nana Diawuo Bediako (See attach documents). Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna has dreadfully supported, nurtured and promoted chieftaincy litigation in the Pai-Katanga Traditional area that is in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region, to destabilize the area, and in the process to achieve his goal of having a puppet that will be subservient to the Krachiwura.

Why has Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III shown such interest in destabilizing a Traditional Area not under his jurisdiction? The short answer is greed! Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III's interest in the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area simply stems from his despotic, dangerous and inordinate desire for money and power. He translated this virulent desires by exerting influence through his puppet and proxy the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako in order to gain from Pai-Katanga Traditional Area's share of the over GHc138 million that the Government of Ghana (GoG) agreed to pay as compensation for inundated lands caused by the construction of the Akosombo dam.

You would have expected that with the interest shown by Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III in the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area compensation claims he was also claimant. However, Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besmuna III is not a claimant of compensation of any lands, as confirmed by his own statement rebutting his alleged indictment as published in The Ghanaian Times of December 1, 2015. In fact, Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besmuna III's rebuttal of The Ghanaian Times publication was hollow as the GoG White Paper on page 72 scathingly stated that "Government takes a very dim view of the role played by the Omanhene of Krachi Traditional Area, Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna III, also known as Joe Como Mprah, in this whole compensation saga. Government has consequently decided to relieve him of his position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Volta River Authority (VRA)".

Another question to ask is what expertise did Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III bring to the table in forming the so-called "Association of VR Flooded Lands Compensation Claimants," which was chaired by Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna III. The association was formed ostensibly to serve as a conduit to siphon 15% of GoG compensation money of GHc 138 million, with its stated objective to "..establish a reimbursable fund which shall be used to facilitate and procure an early, expeditious and timely release and payment by GoG of the agreed tranches of compensation. The fund shall be paid into and kept in a bank account."

In ordinary English, the objective of Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III and his association was to bribe government officials and corrupt judges as shown by the attached documents.

Since Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III was not a claimant of any compensation one must ask the expertise he brought to the table. His elevated status as chair of this "shell" association and signatory to the bank account of the association is dubious. It is worth noting that Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna II was co-signatory to the bank account of the shell association with his stooge the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako, and by the end of 2013, out of the GHc 71 million compensation that had been paid, Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III and this fraudulent association had defrauded the GoG of GHc 8,465,681.26 by collecting 15 % of the compensation.

Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III has no distinction of being a lawyer and neither is he a surveyor nor land economist. The only distinction he brought to the table was his crafty position as an ex-regional police commander with a corrupt network to influence public officials and court judges. Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III clearly demonstrated this craftiness and deceitful ways when he coached his stooge the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako to lie to the Judgment Debt Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau stating that the lands in the Pai Traditional Area are family and clan lands and not stool lands. He knew or should have known that as Omanhene of the Krachi Traditional Area, some sub-chiefs even under him have stool lands and he should not have told such a blatant lie about a tradition he appeared ignorant of. Is it not ironic that an ex-public servant who swore on his honour to protect and defend the Constitution of Ghana would coach his stooges to lie in order to subvert the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana before the equivalent of a High Court Justice? By claiming that the lands were not stool lands, payments of the lands compensation were made in violation of Article 267 of the Constitution as pointed out by Justice Apau's Commission. Therefore, it came as no surprise that the government "relieve[d] Nana Krachiwura of his position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Volta River Authority as a result of his questionable conduct in relation to these compensation payments." Further the GoG whitepaper stated on page 103, "Nana Krachiwura should render accounts on how the monies deducted and paid into the Volta River Reimbursement Fund were disbursed...[and] The Attorney-General is to take action on this."

The Justice Apau's Judgment Debt Commission Report clearly shows the duplicity and corruption that Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besmuna engineered to inject himself into a GoG compensation program that he was not part of just to inure to himself millions of tax payers money that he was not entitled. On page 351 of the Justice Apau's Judgment Debt Commission Report it states, "Evidence ... shows that it is the Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna and [the destooled chief] Nana Diawuo Bediako who have been the only signatories of all cheques issued for withdrawals from this fund... " The report further states on page 352 that "Evidence before the Commission shows that no lawyers were involved in facilitating the payments of the claims." On page 353, the report continued that after the "...appearance of [Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna] and the [destooled chief] Nana Diawuo Bediako before the commission in September 2014, the about four hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GHc 400,000.00) which they claim was the amount left in the accounts had been drained leaving just eighty-one thousand, five hundred and forty-three Ghana cedis, thirty-three pesewas (GHc 81,543.33) in the said account as at 2nd January, 2015." These withdrawals led Justice Apau's Judgment Debt Commission to ask in its report on page 353, "What was the money withdrawn used for?" Finally, the Commission's report stated that evidence obtained showed, "[Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna], [the destooled chief] Nana Diawuo Bediako, Nana Otieku Amoani Asare III and Mr. Samuel Kumah have been the main recipients and beneficiaries of monies disbursed out the fund. The major beneficiaries were [Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna] and [the destooled chief] Diawuo Bediako II (sic)."

The following is a chronology of activities that Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III has orchestrated with his puppet the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako to destabilize the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area:

Nana Diawuo Bediako was installed as chief of Pai - Katanga on June 1, 2008, and was destooled on November 2,2008 for gross misconduct, to wit stealing. However, Nana Diawuo Bediako has arrogated to himself and clinched on to the title of paramount chief of Pai-Katanga with strong backing of Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III.

With the instigation of Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III, the destooled chief pursued litigation from court to court, and managed to turn civil cases into criminal cases by bribing judges in the Hohoe High Court. These dangerous duo, the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako and Krachiwura Nana Besemuna III managed to turn an honorable court into a Kangaroo Court through bribing a high court judge at the Hohoe High court to rail-road the traditional kingmakers into prison (See attached documents). Before sentencing the seven traditional sub-chief kingmakers to prison, the high court judge called the seven accused to into his chambers and pleaded with them for forgiveness, saying "this is how I make my living" in the Twi language. The seven traditional sub-chief kingmakers are willing to testify under oath.

3. At the Appeals Court, the three-judge panel struck down the High Court ruling stating the case should never have been turned into a criminal case, and reprimanded the Lower Court Judge's decision as "wrongful and illegal." (See attached document). The question now is how are the seven sub-chief kingmakers going to regain their liberty back after a corrupted judge took it away from them.

4. Here is another example of the machinations of Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III who is the president of the Krachi Traditional Council. On 20th October, 2009 the Krachi Traditional Council wrote to "Nananom" that no chief had been enstoolment as a Pai–Katanga Paramount Chief. The aforementioned letter states, "I am, however, instructed to state that your Division within the Krachi Traditional Area (sic) as at the date of this letter failed to report the death of the late Nana Ofosu Yiadom II by completing Chieftaincy vacation declaration form. Your Division has also not completed Chieftaincy enstoolment declaration for any chief who has been enstalled to replace the late Nana Ofosu Yiadom, consequently your letter on the above subject (RE-Destoolment of Paramount Chief) legally is only a news to the Krachi Traditional Council because you have so far failed to comply with the provisions of the Chieftaincy Act in respect of enstoolment vacation of chiefs." (sic) However, when a case was brought against the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako at the Krachi Traditional Council to restrain him from parading as a chief, Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III and his council ruled in favour of the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako.

5. When the Kingmakers of the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area appealed the Krachi Traditional Council's decision at the Regional House of Chiefs at Ho, once again, the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako and Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III adopted a new strategy. This time, Nana Diawuo Bediako was coached to disclaim that he is a paramount chief, and that he was rather a sub-chief under the Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III in the Krachi Traditional Area. A falsity that would have perjured any mortal: but not the omnipotent Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna and the destooled chief Diawuo Bediako. With this crafty strategy the Regional House of Chiefs had no option but rule that the Regional House of Chiefs only dealt with cases involving paramount chiefs; therefore, the Regional House of Chiefs ruled they were unable to consider the case

6. As stated earlier in the short history of the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area, the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area has never been under the Krachi Traditional Area Paramountcy and has always had its own paramountcy. It has always been independent of the Krachiwura's rule and does not owe allegiance to the Krachiwura. The Pai-Katanga Traditional Area only holds a membership in the Krachi Traditional Council in common, and the machination of the Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III was to hide the fraudulent financial dealings he engineered with the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako and perpetrated against the Ghanaian taxpayer.

7. My research has revealed that these two dangerous megalomaniacs have surreptitiously, without the consent and knowledge of the Kingmakers of the Pai–Katanga Traditional Area, gone to the Regional House of Chiefs at Ho to recommend the gazetting of the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako as a paramount chief of the Pai-Katanga Traditional Area

I wish to bring out these dangerous and nefarious activities embarked, on by the Krachiwura Nana Mpra Besemuna III and the destooled chief Diawuo Bediako that has corrupted the institutions of government and the Courts, so that a thorough investigation is conducted to prevent an onslaught of potential violence that will embarrass the government and the judiciary.

The Author is an indigene of the Pai Traditional area in the Krachi East District and may be contacted at kwagyekum@yahoo.com.