Did Asantehene send police & military personnel to disrupt Kumawu Akyempemhene's funeral?

The entire nation, thanks to the media, is aware of the police cum military brutalities inflicted on the innocent citizens of Kumawu-Bodomase including sympathising mourners attending the funeral of the late Kumawu Akyempemhene Nana Okyere Krapa II, on Thursday, 16 February 2017.

Hardly had the dust settled when a rumour was leaked from Kumawuhemaa Nana Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah’s camp that Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II arranged the security personnel to proceed to Kumawu-Bodomase to ensure by any means possible that Kumawuhene Barima Tweneboa Kodua V and his sub-chiefs were not allowed to attend the funeral as chiefs but ordinary mourners.

Much as I am still in the process of questioning His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and his government to know who ordered the armed police cum military personnel to descend on Kumawu-Bodomase to brutalise the people on that fateful day, I shall while waiting for an answer, lend ear to the rumours doing rounds in Kumawuman as to who sent the security personnel there. There is the slightest truth in every rumour, so an adage goes.

Be that as it may, what then could be the motive of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for sending the police and the soldiers there in the first place? Again, could he be that order from above who instructed the police and the soldiers to shoot and kill Kumawuhene Barima Tweneboa Kodua V if he resisted their orders to him not to proceed to the funeral ground dressed in full regalia of Kumawu paramount chief?

The Divisional Police Commander of Effiduase in the Ashanti region is understood to have ordered the security agents to shoot and kill Barima Tweneboa Kodua V. He claimed his instruction to the police and the soldiers was an order from above. So is Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II that person at above issuing that order to kill an innocent chief?

Why would he issue that order? I know for fact that Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has been colluding with Kumawuhemaa to exploit Kumawuman to the hilt. They had dubiously arranged to sell hundreds of thousands of hectares of Kumawu Afram Plains lands to a Norwegian company. They also have the agenda to avail themselves of the Kumawuman funds with the Bank of Ghana if they had their own way.

These are the reasons why they need a puppet in the person of Dr Yaw Sarfo, the alleged Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, who will yield in to their manipulations directed at duping Kumawuman, to become, or remain, the Kumawu Omanhene.

Does Asantehene see Barima Tweneboa Kodua V as a threat to his evil intentions hence arranging to have him killed if the rumours coming from the queen’s camp coupled with the order by the Effiduase Divisional Police Commander were anything to go by?

Asantehene must understand that he is not an Overlord of Kumawu but Kumasi. By existing conventions, he has absolutely no right to meddle in Kumawu chieftaincy affairs or disputes let alone, impose a person of his choice on Kumawuman as their paramount chief. He had better go back to learn the Ashanti history and the relevant regulations very well in case he has forgotten them.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II should note that the despotic powers of Asantehene were abrogated upon the capture and deportation of Asantehene Nana Agyemang Prempeh I to Seychelles in 1896. From 1935 when the Asante Confederacy was restored, the role of Asantehene in the Asante Confederacy, now the Asanteman Council, has become only ceremonial in nature.

All the Divisions within Asanteman, e.g. Kumawu, Juaben, Mampomg, Essumja, Kokofu, Nsuta etc., are lord unto themselves and no Asantehene has the right to go there to expropriate their lands or funds. I have a proof of document to this effect.

Additionally, with Gold Coast, now Ghana, becoming a republic with constitutional monarchy, all the previously absolute powers wielded by our Kings, chiefs and queens, were taken away. They are all under the same laws of the land like any other ordinary person.

For the sake of the public readers, let me define what a constitutional monarchy is. Constitutional monarchy is a system in which the king or queen's power is severely limited, because they act only on the advice of the politicians who form the government.

Subsequently, I find it a bit odd how Asantehene could order a contingent of police and military to proceed to Kumawu-Bodomase to commit that heinous crime which is now all over the news and broadcast on ABM television abroad.

What a disgrace to Ghana that a tribal chief could usurp the powers of an elected government to order the security forces only answerable to the government to mount such a criminal assault on innocent people.

When the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute erupted for the second time, the Minister of Interior and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) rushed there and have now provided both rival chiefs with police protection.

Is that of Kumawu any different from Bimbilla’s or the government is waiting for people to be killed as it was the motive of the police and the soldiers before a government Minister and the IGP will rush there to implement some form of solution? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Therefore, what is good for Bimbilla could also be good for Kumawu-Bodomase.

Asantehene and his accomplices as clever as they were in seeking alibi to exonerate themselves of any possible blame organised a send-off party for then outgoing Ashanti Regional Police Commander COP Nathan Kofi Boakye on same Thursday 16 February 2016 with Kumawuhene Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua in attendance. Who do they think they were fooling if not themselves? Do they think Kumawuman people are fools who wash their face upside down?

The outgone (transferred to Tamale) Ashanti regional Police Public Relations Officer Yusuf Mohammed Tanko said the police acting on intelligence, sent the armed security personnel to Kumawu Bodomase to forcibly ensure that Barima Tweneboa Kodua V did not attend the funeral of the late Kumawu Akyempemhene Nana Okyere Krapa II in the capacity of Kumawu Omanhene. He said the police have it on their record that Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua is the legitimate Kumawuhene who has sworn the oath of allegiance to Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and additionally, he has been gazetted.

I find his reasons completely balderdash. The fact that Dr Yaw Sarfo was dubiously enstooled, dubiously swore an oath to Asantehene and dubiously gazetted does not make him recognisable by and acceptable to, the subjects of Kumawuman. The little said about his gazetting, much the better.

The truth will out in the coming days even though Asantehene is hiding at his Manhyia Palace and probably in his bedroom the forms Dr Yaw Sarfo filled out consequent upon which he was gazetted as Kumawumanhene.

Why is Otumfuo concealing a document meant to be a public record? As said by Kwame A-Plus, ‘Aben be bom’.

Did the government of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, or Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, send the armed security personnel to Kumawu Bodomase not only to disrupt the late Kumawu Akyempemhene Nana Okyere Krapa II’s funeral but also, to kill Kumawuhene Barima Tweneboa Kodua V if he were to flout the orders by the security personnel as made evident by the Effiduase Divisional Police Commander?

Stay tuned for more info. Until I get a satisfactory answer from the government, I shall not rest.

Rockson Adofo

Dated: Thursday, 23rd February 2017