-Flays ‘Ga Mantse’ for Bad Verses

The Ga Paramount Stool Dsase, has, on behalf of the people of the Ga State, apologized to President John Evans Atta Mills and Ghanaians, over what it termed “the unwarranted effusions against the Highest Office of the country.”

Addressing a press conference at Gbese in Accra yesterday, the Ga Stool Dzasetse, Nii Yaote Oto-Ga II, stated that “The Ga Paramount Stool Dzase categorically disassociates the Paramount stool from the reckless and abusive language and comportment of the False CLAIMANT to the Ga stool.”

According to the Ga Dzase, “The present public outcry against the actions and unguarded utterances of the charlatan ‘mantse’ clearly vindicates the Dzasetse’s position that it is pertinent to undergo appropriate traditional rites and education,” adding that this “includes grooming, public speaking, comportment, right behaviours and attitudes for the occupant of the stool.”

The Ga Dzase continued that “due to the falsehood and the clandestine haste that characterized the purported enstoolment of the false claimant, these were blatantly ignored,” and “The consequence is the disgrace which has been visited on the stool and Ga people.”

The Dzase, therefore, condemned what it described as “his posturing for recognition that he does not deserve.”

Nii Yaote Oto-Ga emphasized that “The Ga Paramount Dsase, the only legitimate and customarily mandated and recognized body of king-makers of the paramount Stool have not at anytime installed anyone as Ga Mantse, since the demise of our illustrious Boni Nii Amugi II, for the Ga State.”

According to the Dzasetse, as far back as July 5, 2006, a couple of weeks after a June 13, 2006 publication of a “ so-called installation, the Dzase questioned which DZASE AND DZASETSE PRESIDED OVER THE INSTALLATION OF LARTEY ‘SEMPE’ AS ‘GA MANTSE,” which question is yet to be answered by anyone.

The Dzase asserted that “therefore anyone parading himself as ‘Ga Mantse’ is illegitimate and does not have the authority and mandate of the PARAMOUNT STOOL DSASE,” and advised “the general public and all state institutions that presently there is no accredited Ga Mantse on the Royal Stool.”

The Dzase reiterated that “any reference or attribution to the position presently to any person is wrong and flies in the face of the sensibilities of Ga peoples and all references to a ‘Ga Mantse’ must cease forthwith.” Flanked by elders of the Ga State, clad in red attire, the Dzasetse stressed that “any purported installation of a Ga Mantse without our INITIATION, direction, participation and approval, is null and void ab-initio and of no consequence.”

The Ga Dzase are the accredited Kingmakers of the Ga people and its press conference comes in the wake of recent public accusations of President Mills by ‘King Tackie Tawiah III,’ for not inviting him to State functions as the Paramount Chief of the Ga people.

The accusations attracted comments from various quarters, including the Ga-Dangme Council, whose President, Mr. K. B. Asante also insists that there has not as yet been any successor to the late Nii Amugi II, since his demise, as no person has gone through the required process and rites to be recognized as such. Government officials, reacting to ‘King Tackie Tawiah’s’ tirades, indicated that the government would not have difficulty at all in giving the necessary recognition to a Ga Mantse, who is accepted as legitimate and gazetted as such. The legitimacy of ‘King Tackie Tawiah III’ as Ga Mantse is being contested before the Judicial Committee at the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, which sits at Dodowa.