Police personnel at the scene to ensure sanity
Dignitaries, chiefs and people of the Ningo Traditional Area were astounded and apparently disgraced when some thugs alleged to have been hired by Samuel George Nartey, parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Ningo-Prampram Constituency, stopped the chiefs from holding a grand durbar to climax this year’s Homowo festival.
According to sources, the rationale behind the disruption was that a native of the area, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, wife of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was scheduled to be the guest of honour for the programme.
Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo was said to be in town when the shameful act took place at the Old Ningo D/A Junior High School (JHS) Park, opposite the Ningo Police Station.
This was not the first time Mrs. Akufo-Addo was going to address such a gathering on the occasion of Ningo’s Homowo festival. She had been a guest during the celebration of the festival oftentimes.
But this year’s event was reportedly marred by about 20 suspected thugs who stormed the venue of the programme at about 6am and burned canopies mounted a fortnight before in preparation for the event and destroyed the podium.
They allegedly drove away indigenes who were performing a customary rite in the area called ‘Ats?me Night’ before the grand durbar to climax the Homowo festivities.
Later, the chiefs intended to continue with the programme by renting other canopies to be mounted at the venue but the hooligans were said to have returned with their diabolical mission but the Prampram police, in collaboration with their counterparts from the Tema Regional Police Command, stormed the area with personnel of the Special Weapons and Ammunition Tactics (SWAT) to drive away the supposed Sam George’s boys.
Eventually, the traditional council cancelled off the whole programme without performing any customary rite for Nene Djage, the supposed god of the town.
Efforts by Daily Guide to get further explanation from the chiefs proved futile as the council had decided not to comment on the issue, likewise the police.
Information gathered by this paper indicated that the confusion started when some politicians pitched Lowekpono, one of the clans of the traditional area, against Lowe, another clan, over their long-standing dispute over which clan chooses a paramount chief for the Ningo Traditional Area.
It was said that one of the clans was asked to organize the grand durbar because the other organised last year’s through an agreement.
