Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa on the 40th day of his installation as Abenehene which was shrouded in controversy automatically makes him the Kwahumanhene, under stool name Nana Mampong Agyei II has finally broken his long silence over the State’s failure to protect lives and property in Abene following his enstoolment.

In a press statement, the revered Pathologist bemoaned how the Security Services of the country have failed to bring sanity, law and order in the face of impunity and vigilantism aided by some known chiefs close to Abene.

Read below is the unedited Press Release

PRESS RELEASE FROM DAASEBRE MAMPONG AGYEI II Abenehene aka PROF. AGYEMAN BADU AKOSA

It is now day 40 after my nomination and enstoolment as Chief of Abene, Kwahu under the stool name Daasebre Mampong Agyei II. The day after, there was an invasion of Abene following the declaration of war by the Chief of Abetifi and mayhem was visited on persons and property. There were about 150 men from everywhere except Abene with guns, cutlasses and sticks. The audio on the declaration and video on the destruction are out in the public domain. Abetifihene was bold enough to say that some of those going to Abene will not return. The other side was for the heads of Daasebre Mampong Agyei II, Abene Werempehene, Nana Addai Frempong and Mr Dickson Boateng the Abene Unit Committee Chairman to be brought to Abetifihene as spoils of a Chieftaincy dispute.

The people of Abene did not put up any resistance. All the able-bodied persons took cover, went into the bush and found their way to any place in the name of peace. It is now 40 days and many men and women have not returned. About 20 of the invaders are still housed in the Palace and threaten the lives of the elderly women and children who are still in Abene. More than 100 young men and women of Abene have been internally displaced for 40 days now and anyone who has attempted to go back has been chased out. One of them was beaten up and has filed a complaint to the Police in Nkawkaw without any effect.

In Ghana today, someone can declare war in the presence of two District (Abetifi and Mpraeso) and one Divisional (Nkawkaw) Police commanders, Regional Minister who is a Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkawkaw and the MP for Abetifi, a Minister of State in whose constituency Abene is situated, follow through on the declaration and despite the destruction and internal displacement of persons, he is able to keep a contingent there to continue to intimidate the people of Abene and nothing can be done to him. Is it not with Police and Government complicity that such mayhem can be visited on innocent people without any redress? Everybody who should know has been informed and under the guise of investigations the intimidation continues.

Under the watch of the Police service, people’s homes are visited in search of any returnee. Peoples livestock have all been killed for food. So far the Police in Abetifi, Mpraeso and Nkawkaw have put out information into the public domain that Abene is peaceful and have passed on same to the Regional Police Commander and also to the Director General Of Criminal Investigations Division and Inspector General of Police. Abene the seat of Paramountcy in Kwahu has been besieged and its people internally displaced for almost six weeks and is anything but peaceful. A request to visit Abene by Daasebre under Police protection was turned down that the place was not safe. Meanwhile the perpetuators of the crime, Abetifihene, Pepease Bonsu, ex Krontihene of Abene continue to move in and out of Abene plotting to install another Chief of Abene; the surest recipe for no lasting peace.

Otherwise, innocent persons whose only crime was to support the proper nomination and enstoolment of their chief continue to suffer in a democratic Ghana. Their farms have not been tended for 40 days, the traders among them have lost their capital after the invasion and stealing and are unable to work and have no redress from the Security Agencies in Ghana. Contrast that with what has happened in Denkyira Obuasi and wish that 10% of that activity could have been brought to Abene and some urgency shown in the investigations to round up the perpetuators who are walking around with impunity and plotting their next move. It is rumored that arms have been stored in the Pepease Palace for use either on Thursday or Sunday (Akwasidae) when they intend to install an illegal chief of Abene without the people of Abene.

I have by this incident learnt why people take the law into their own hands. Everything sadly is dependent on who pays the most. It would appear that in the Districts, the Police and Judiciary Services are there to serve very few people. The majority have no access at all and since the later deals with justice and not truth, many cases get lost along the way.

RELIEFS

Abene must be purged off all the strangers who are there ostensibly to protect the Palace immediately to allow the internally displaced indigenes to come back to assess the damage to their homes and property and to restart work on their farms.

The investigations must be conducted with dispatch and the perpetrators arrested and charged.

No permit be granted to any group to install a new chief in Abene instead their recourse must be to the law courts.

The District Chief Executive, Regional Minister and MP for Abetifi must visit Abene to ascertain the true facts and interact with the internally displaced persons as a sign of respect for the constituents.