Editorial News of Monday, 19 July 1999

Source: --

The Ghanaian Democrat

NPP organiser charged with Black Stool theft

In a screaming front page headline story, the Ghanaian Democrat reports that the NPP constituency youth organiser for Asante Mampong, Mr Joshua Ernest Kofi Marfo and his close friend, Osei kofi, have been charged by the Asante Mampong Police for allegedly stealing a 69-year-old Black Stool.

The paper says Nana Kwadwo Boakye, ?Nkonwasoafohene? and Nana Boakye, the ?Akonforihene?, narrating the story said the theft was detected on May 30, this year, when the stool was needed for ritual. They said Osei Kofi, on whose ceiling the stool was kept, was arrested three days later and charged with stealing.

According to the chiefs, after the death on May 4, 1930, of Nana Osei Bonsu, Mamponhene, his stool was to be kept in the family house until after the final funeral rites, but an ensuing chieftaincy dispute prevented the performance of the funeral rites.

The Democrat says when Osei Kofi was arrested, he mentioned the NPP youth organiser as his accomplice and he was subsequently nabbed. According to the paper, Marfo admitted stealing the stool with Osei Kofi and told the police that he had kept it in an empty barrel, but when they accompanied him to retrieve it, the stool was no where to be found.