President Nana Akufo Addo: Appointment of Patrick Gilima As Krachi East DCE Will Lead To Conflict and Bloodshed In The Pai Traditional Area

By Kwabena Agyekum, Adenta, Accra

The President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo should not consider appointing Mr. Patrick Gilima who stood as NPP parliamentary candidate in 2008 and 2012 for the Krachi East constituency as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the following reasons.

1. He has been dabbling in chieftaincy disputes (even though he is not an Elder, sub-chief, and neither does he have lineage to the stool nor is he an indigene) in the Pai Traditional which in May 2014 led to a sub-chief in the Pai Traditional area being found dead on his farm with gunshot wounds, with the exact circumstances leading to his death yet to be uncovered. 2. He has engaged hooligans in the Pai-Katanka township to support a destooled chief to seize the "gong-gong" and assaulted the "town crier" who was asked to beat the gong-gong for the new Pai chief. 3. Not only has Mr. Gilima been providing moral support to the destooled chief Nana Diawuo Bediako II he has more importantly used his wealth to influence the police to prevent action being taken against the hooligans involved in the seizing of the gong-gong and assaulting the gong-gong beater. The destooled chief whom Mr. Gilima provides unflinching support has had adverse findings recommended against him by the Justice Yaw Apau's Judgment Debt Commission; this destooled chief was one of the three signatories to an account and a major beneficiary of monies paid into that account through fraudulent claims of 15 % of the total compensation paid by GoG for Volta River Flooded Lands.

4. In the mid 1990s during the Konkomba-Nanumba conflict, Mr. Gilima publicly wielding a gun paraded the Pai-Katanka township with his hooligans threatening citizens with war should any Pai citizen claim ownership of the land on which the Konkombas farmed in the area even thoug h Pai Traditional was far away from the scene of the conflict and shared no jurisdiction with the conflict area. More important the people of the Pai Traditional had lived peacefully with the Konkombas and there had never arisen a dispute about farming on Pai stool lands. But who are the people of present day Pai-Katanka and the Pai Traditional area? The people of the present day Pai-Katanka were resettled in the Krachi East District after the inundation of their ancestral homelands in the Pai-Traditional Area. The reason for the resettlement was the inundation of the ancestral homelands resulting from the construction of the Akosombo dam. Now a short history of the Pai Traditional area. According to the traditions of the Afram Plains documented by Kwabena Ameyaw, there are five towns that make up the Pai Traditional Area. The towns that make up the traditional area are Pai Ahenkro (Wurubi), Motodua, Apaaso, Otiso and Supom (Ahenkro). The lands belonging to these five towns were consecrated and placed under the five Akan “black” stools awarded by Nana Diawuo, Omanhene of Kwahu Traditional Area at the end of the war campaign against Atara Firam, when the latter was defeated. Each of the five generals that fought with Nana Diawuo was given a black stool as their symbol of loyalty and authority over the land consecrated under his stool. Further, all the five black stools owed their allegiance to Nana Diawuo, Omanhene of Kwahu at Abene and the subsequent successors until the Germans broke the official tributes paid by the Pai Traditional area chiefs to the Omanhene of Kwahu Traditional Area. In spite of the prohibition that took place under the occupation of the area by the Germans around 1896, the people of the Pai Traditional Area still maintain customary rites between the two Traditional Areas to this day. The people of the Pai Traditionl Area were very welcoming and lived happily and peacefully with Ghanaians of all ethnicities including Mr. Patrick Gilima's Konkomba ethnic group prior to the inundation of the Pai ancestral lands resulting from the construction of the Akosombo dam. Most of the Konkombas including Mr. Patrick Gilima's family were resettled by the VRA in the Krachi East District with the indigenes of the Pai Traditional traditional area. Mr. Patrick Gilima therefore, has no li neage to the Pai stool whose decisions has tried over the years to use his wealth to influence and thus cause anarchy and confusion in the area.

I wish to bring out these facts to the attention of the Presidency so that Mr. Patrick Gilima is not considered for the position DCE of the Krachi East in order to prevent his abuse of power that will lead to an onslaught of potential violence and bloodshed that will embarrass the government.

The Author is an indigene of the Pai Traditional Area in the Krachi East District and may be contacted at kwagyekum@yahoo.com.