Krobo Chiefs didn't reject our petition – Group

The claim by the Manya Krobo Traditional Council that it did not accept the petition of a group which protested at Odumase-Krobo on Tuesday following the arrival of Nana Akufo-Addo in the town has been rebuffed by the leader of the demonstrators.

The demonstration, organised by Evans Srenyame Tetteh, Convener of the Krobo Youth Network, was to express unhappiness with comments made by Abuakwa South Member of Parliament Samuel Atta Akyea in an interview with Class News’ parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, months back that Akyem, instead of Somanya, deserved to have hosted the University of Environment.

“Look at the siting of the University for the Eastern Region. Okyehene has been good enough to have piloted an agricultural university and the majority carries the vote. If you measure the population strength of Somanya as against Akyem Abuakwa and the biggest paramountcy in the Eastern Region, logic alone should inform everybody that the best place to site a university for the Eastern Region should be in Abuakwa South, my constituency, and probably you partner with the Okyehene and have the university," Mr Akyea had argued.

But the Public Relations Officer of the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, Nene Asada Ahor I, speaking to Accra News on Tuesday, said the petition was not received since the council was not made aware of any plan to protest and was also unhappy with the timing of the demonstration with the commencement of the four-day tour of the Eastern region of the opposition leader.

He said: “… The council has no knowledge about what they are saying. …They have to give…prior information on all those things.”

“If they say Atta Akyea made a statement, he made the statement long ago, and why didn’t people demonstrate or protest and you waited till a presidential candidate is coming here to…campaign before you demonstrate? Are you demonstrating against the candidate or the one who made the statement?”

He said Mr Atta Akyea made that statement with respect to the siting of the university because as an MP he was also lobbying for the project for his area to win him votes, though government thought it better to situate it on Kroboland.

“What is the problem of the youth, the demonstrators? It (the university) has not been taken away from you. Somebody is coming to do his campaign. Why do you demonstrate? You are demonstrating for what? If the thing has been taken away from you, then you have every right to demonstrate…”

Nene Ahor I added that the decision of the council to reject the petition did not amount to taking sides with the Abuakwa South MP or the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“…There is no way we will support anything that is not good for Ghana. We are all Ghanaians. We need to be careful. Why should we allow ourselves to be intimidated? No, we will not do that,” he added.

Reacting to the comments on Accra FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Wednesday November 16, 2016, Mr Tetteh countered that the petition was, indeed, presented to the traditional authorities of Manya Krobo.

He explained that due to another group of persons organising a counter demonstration, his demonstrators were advised that in order to “avert any casualty” they should be prevented from going to the palace to submit the petition, for which reason a football park close to the palace was agreed on as a suitable venue for that purpose.

“So we converged there and the chiefs sent a delegation to receive our petition to give to the paramount chief,” he told show host Chief Jerry Forson.

The petition, he said, was received by a “sub-chief”, though he could not readily provide his name.