Akrodiehene in Trouble

Nana Yiadom Boakye Asiamah, who was enstooled paramount chief of the Akrodie traditional area in 1994, is in for trouble, as eight kingmakers of the Akrodie paramount stool would simply not let the eight-year old chieftaincy dispute go away.

They want destoolment charges brought against the chief, which were overlooked by two judicial committees, reviewed by the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

The kingmakers, led by the gyasehene, Nana Dwamena Akenten, still stand by the destoolment charges against the chief, who is also known as Bishop Paul Asiamah, alias Abednego.

For eight years now, the embattled chief has not set foot on the soil of Akrodie, following a dispute which arose a year after his installation.

He is accused of not effectively exercising the functions of a chief, having combined this with pastoral duties as founder-leader and head pastor of the Abednego Incarnation Church at Pankronu, near Kumasi.

This is beside his inability to go to Akrodie, thus starving the black stools of custom and tradition.

The kingmakers have, consequently, petitioned the Asantehene to intervene and ascertain the substance of the destoolment charges against the chief, described as an "absentee chief."

According to them, an acceptance of the destoolment charges, which were brooded over by the judicial committees, would pave the way for proper development of the area. They claim all charges levelled against Nana Asiamah are "true and indefensible."

Even though the judicial committee of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefsand the Standing committee of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs, headed by Nana Osei Bonsu II, had given verdicts in favour of the Akrodie chief, the kingmakers contend that the decision of the two committees are "bogus, unmeritorious and unjust."

They noted that the impression created by a media report in an Accra daily on December 24, last year to the effect that the Akrodie chieftaincy dispute had been resolved, had rather sparked off fierce outrage and vexation among the youth and the entire citizenry of the town, aggravating the militant stand of the people against the chief.

The call for Asantehene's intervention, the second in recent times, comes six months after the youth of the town had made a similar appeal to His Royal Highness.

In November, last year about 245 signatories petitioned the Asantehene to personally get involved in the determination of the dispute.

Their plea then was an endorsement of the rejection of the findings and recommendations of the two aforementioned judicial committees by elders and kingmakers of Akrodie in the eight-year-old Akrodie stool dispute.