Government can only cancel festivals if celebrations threaten peace

Ho, Oct. 10, GNA-Mr. Kofi Dzamesi Volta Regional Minster on Tuesday said government could only cancel traditional festivals if it thought celebrations seriously threatened the peace.

He said the courts were the right places to seek injunctions barring festivals and not declarations from government. Mr. Dzamesi was speaking to a delegation of chiefs from the Anlo Traditional Council who presented programmes of the 2006 Hogbetsotso festival of the Anlos to him in Ho. He said if a fiat was not got from a court for the banning of any festival, it would be the duty of government to protect all celebrants. The three-member delegation led by Togbe Duklui Attippoe of Anyako told the Minister that the ceremonies for the festival, which started on Sunday October 8, would be climaxed with a durbar on Saturday November 4 at Anloga.

He said programmes included quizzes by JSS and SSS students and reconciliation rites.

The celebration of the Hogbetsotso festival, instituted to mark the escape of Ewes from the tyrannical rule of King Agorkorli and subsequent settlement in their present day abode had been fraught with disputes involving succession to the Awomefia stool. An attempt to have the festival cancelled by seeking a court injunction failed last year.