The deplorable state of under-development in Asumegya Asantemanso, a community in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti Region, has compelled its opinion leaders to petition the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to help resolve a protracted chieftaincy issue responsible for the area’s lack of progress.

Members of the agrarian community say socio-cultural systems and infrastructural development will be restored to help improve their living conditions if a substantive paramount chief has been enstooled to rally the people.

Asumegya Asantemanso, a historic traditional area in the Asante culture, has been without a paramount chief, since the death of Nana Oduro Nimapau II, 13 years ago. Kingmakers have failed to replace him.

A petition dated April 25, 2016, signed by Nana Adu Abankro Agyeman, a senior stool elder on behalf of the people of Asumegya and sent to the Asantehene with copies to the Krontihene and Gyaasehene of the traditional area, and blamed the situation on the kingmakers’ inability to unite.

Not only has the absence of the paramount chief is said to have denied Asumegya of its representation when Otumfuo Osei Tutu II sits in state but also stalled development and weakened internal security.

Considering the prevailing circumstances, the petition pleaded with the Asantehene to accept a royal from the Aduana clan who the people recently publicly picked to be their new paramount chief to end the years of their leadership crisis.

The people seized Okyere Yaw Ntrama, a mining engineer, carried him shoulder-high through the principal streets of the town and declared him their new chief amidst drumming and dancing during a post-independence anniversary of school children on March 15, 2016.

This was after Okyere Yaw Ntrama had reportedly donated computers and money as his personal contribution towards the educational development of the area at the event.

He is said to be a royal of the Aduana clan of the community and an offspring of the early chiefs and queens of Asumegya state reckoning from the ancestry of the first queen mother, Nana Samanto.