Rawlings descends on Otumfuo, chiefs

In its screaming headline story, the Ghanaian Chronicle says President Jerry Rawlings on Friday, June 18, took to task the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and 17 of his paramount chiefs for failing to issue a statement to defuse what he called ?mounting tension created by a caller?s remark on an Accra FM Radio phone-in programme on the banning on drumming by the Ga Traditional Council.

President is reported to have said the caller had stated that Gas could not compare themselves to Ashantis. "I was looking forward to some of you at the other side to issue a statement to stop that nonesense", he is quoted as telling the chiefs, pointing his left finger at them one by one.

The chiefs were at the Castle to thank the government for its assistance during the funeral of the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, and to formally introduce Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who succeeded his uncle as the Asantehene.

The Chronicle says according to President Rawlings, some members of government spent sleepless nights trying to defuse the tension which could have degenerated into an ethnic conflict and which the military could have found difficult to control.