: The Debate Rages On!


Feature Article, By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

There certain things that cannot be allowed to be "kept under wraps".
One such issue is the ritual murder of Nana Akyea Mensah. After years
of drawing Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., out for a conversation on this
very serious issue concerning the suspected criminal and highly
represhensible behaviour of the man he is indefatigably attempting to
foist over us a a national hero, he has finally been smoked out to
pronounce on it.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure to announce the formal
opening of this special focuson a matter that has implications on the
political attitudes of the villain of the Gold Coast, Dr. Joseph
Boakye Danquah. I want to see the bottom of this matter! I am inviting
any one who has information to participate in this discussion. It will
also be very intersting to find out how DR. J. B. Danquah
intellectually accommodated and morally justified such repugnant
crimes in his political philosophy and world outlook.

To set the ball rolling, here is a thread of discussions that make an
interesting beginning. We owe it to a Ghanaweb discussion forum on a
feature article in which Danquah is seen pathetically trying to
undermine Kwame Nkrumah even after the people of Gold Coast had
systematically rejected him as a leader! What is curious here is why
he was rejected by his own people of Akyem Abuakwa whom he had served
as their Attorney General since 1928?

The ritual murder of Akyea Mensah:

"What Okoampah refuses to tell the world is the role Danquah played in
the ritual murder of Nana Akyea Mensah of Apedwa. Nana Akyea Mensah
was ritually murdered when Nana Ofori Atta passed away. Danquah played
a significant role in this ritual murder of an odehye. Some people
believe the role Danquah played in that dastardly act turned off the
Akim Abuakwa people so much that they refused to elect Danquah to
Parliament as their representative in 1954 and the 1956 elections." -
(Comment: The ritual murder of Akyea Mensah, Author: Adwowa Mansah,
Date: 2010-09-27 05:32:35)

Adwowa Mansa, Don't Overbite!:

"Nana Akyea-Mensah was my maternal granduncle; if Dr. Danquah had been
involved in his murder, believe me, I would have published such
evidence! Read my book "Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana"
(2005) and learn what I forensically had to say on the matter.

Nkrumah had both clinically murderous and megalomaniacal tendencies
that have been proven by the stark evidence of his own political
record.

About the only fault Danquah made over the Akyea-Mensah cause celebre,
was his insistence on personally defending his nephews as a lawyer.
But this was only to be expected.- (Comment: Adwowa Mansa, Don't
Overbite!, Author: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Date: 2010-09-27
06:31:19, Comment to:
The ritual murder of Akyea Mensah)

Re: Adwowa Mansa, Don't Overbite!,

Let's go straight to the point. It is no secret, that in matters of
law and its intepretation, Dr. J. B. Danquah was the man to deal with
in the Akyem Abuakwa state. He had virtually served as the Attorney
General of Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, since his return from Oxford
University in 1928 up till the very evening the legality or otherwise
of ritual murder came up for discussion on the eve of the murder of
Nana Akyea Mensah on Saturday, 26th February, 1944. The issue at stake
was what they call the WEREMPE rituals or the "blackening of the
stool".

Nana Akyea Mensah, Chief of Apedwa, and traditionally commander of the
Okyehene's royal bodyguard, opposed the use of human blood to blacken
the stool as was the custom, on the grounds that this would be
illegal, and they were running the risk of being arrested and charged
with murder. The strong disagreements that ensued on Saruarday evening
over such a fundamental legal issue, at a time Danquah was presnt for
the funerals makes it somewhat odd that the aggrieved parties who
disagreed with Nana Akyea Mensah would not have contacted him in order
to prove that Akyea Mensah was talking bunkums! It would be very
interesting for science to find out exactly at what time in the
evolution of this case was Danquah consulted. Was it before or after
the murder of Nana Akyea Mensah?

And just why do you think Danquah would not allow more competent
lawyers into the defence and insisted on defending them personally?
There is a school of thought, to which I belong, that believes that
the reason as to, (as you put it), " his insistence on personally
defending his nephews as a lawyer", was because of the earlier
assurances of the legality of the act, and the encouragement to these
ignorant peasants of his personal defence even if the matter came up.
Danquah knew he was an incompetent lawyer, but he had exchanged for
his name not being mentioned as an accomplice in order to defend them.
The fear was not to disappoint the defendants who had every confidence
in him. Bsides, who knows what the accused was going to divulge to any
good defence lawyer that would take over the case from Danquah?

They could have argued that they were misled by Danquah, pleaded
guilty with remorse, and saved themselves from the hangman's noose! By
incompetently sitting on the case, Danquah ensured that they would be
hanged, and unless dead men began to tell stories, as it was in the
case of Akyea Mensah's ghost, he was hoping to bury his role in this
sordid affair with the condemned persons.

You write: "About the only fault Danquah made over the Akyea-Mensah
cause celebre, was his insistence on personally defending his nephews
as a lawyer. But this was only to be expected." Indeed! And why do you
think an incompetent lawyer thought he was doing his own relatives a
favour by inisisting on personally defending them until they were
"sentenced to death by hanging on the neck"?

Your argument that Nana Akyea Mensah was your maternal granduncle and
so "if Dr. Danquah had been involved in his murder, believe me, I
would have published such evidence," does not wash! In the first
place, why should we believe you? Was Nana Akyea Mensah not Danquah's
half-brother? Is it not clear to all that you have taken sides in this
family feud?

I am very happy that people are beginning to ask questions that have
the power to smoke you out for further exposure!
Come again, Okoampa! Adwowa Mansa is perfectly right! How do you
account for the defeat of J. B. Danquah by his own nephew, Aaron Ofori
Atta? Explain that too! (Comment: Re: Adwowa Mansa, Don't Overbite!,
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro., Date: 2010-09-27 09:46:53,
Comment to: Adwowa Mansa, Don't Overbite!)

"To all men of goodwill, organize, organize, organize! The struggle is
far from over!
We prefer self-government in danger, to servitude in tranquillity!
Forward ever, backward never"!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
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