DESTOOLMENT! Nana Kwame Afari Bampo II and his weapon-wielding gang
A RAMBO-STYLED gun-wielding chief, Nana Kwame Afari Bampo II, Banmuhene of Akropong-Akwapim Traditional Area, is in trouble as he faces destoolment by his people.
Nana Bampo, known in private life as Staff Sergeant Frederick Ansaaku Kwakye of Base Ordnance, Ghana Army, has been dragged to the Judicial Committee of the Akuapem Traditional Council by his kingmakers after he publicly brandished a pistol, allegedly threatening his subjects.
In a 29-point-petition presented to the Council dated June 28, 2011, the kingmakers are seeking a declaration that the respondent (Nana Bampo II) has acted in various ways that make him unfit to occupy the Banmu Stool.
The kingmakers, who are all members of the Banmu stool family, include Opanin Kwaku Boateng, Abrewatia Christiana Akuffo-Darko, Abrewatia Yaa Oforiwaa, Opanin Kwabena Obuobi and Elizabeth Yirenkyiwaa Dua.
Nana Bampo II was installed as the Banmuhene in or about 2003 but has since been suspended by the Omanhene of the Akuapem Traditional Area, Osiadieye Nana Addo Dankwa III, because of the charges levelled against him, including “using the Banmu palace for certain customary practices and acts which are unknown to the stool and amount to blasphemy”.
The embattled chief, according to the kingmakers, ran amok when he was suspended as he fired several rounds of shots into the air on the eve of the 2010 Odwira festival despite the crowd around.
Promising to produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, during the hearing to buttress their claims, the kingmakers (petitioners) pointed out that in furtherance of his “uncustomary acts and practices, the respondent has been practising occultism in the palace and has also allowed his mother to practise her fetish priesthood in the palace which is against the Akwapem custom”.
The petitioners are seeking a declaration that the respondent has, by his acts and conduct, desecrated the Banmu Stool and was therefore not fit to continue to occupy the stool.
Also among the particulars of claim, the petitioners are seeking an order for the destoolment of the respondent as well as “an order in the nature of an injunction restraining the respondent from holding himself out as the Banmuhene of Akropong-Akwapim”.
However, Nana Bampo II, through his solicitors, Nkrabeah & Associates, legal practitioners, has on August 17, 2011 entered an appearance in the suit, awaiting a fierce judicial battle between the two parties.
Giving reasons warranting the petition, the petitioners said they the “kingmakers/principal members of the Banmu stool, family of Akropong-Akwapim, bring this action for themselves and on behalf of the Banmu stool family.”
According to the petitioners, the Banmu stool family was made up of three ruling houses, Twumwaa, Aku and Sakyirifa.
They averred that the respondent, since ascending the Banmu stool, had forcibly been trying to take over lands belonging to the other families of the Banmu stool.
Again, the respondent, whose family is Sakyirifa, had no land at Bewase but “he is by use of brute force taking over the lands at Bewase because of his position”, they added.
The lands at Bewase, the petitioners explained, belonged to the Aku and Twumaa families of the Banmu stool whilst the respondent’s branch family Sakyirifa owned land at Bewase.
The respondent has unilaterally removed the Odikro of Bewase who ruled for over 33 years and enstooled another person in his stead without the knowledge and consent of the Banmu stool elders.
The petitioners have also accused the respondent of attempting to sell the ancestral grove of the Banmu stool to estate developers unilaterally and the intended sale was stopped when the family got wind of it.
But the respondent, they claimed, ran amok, threatening to discipline all the members of the family.
Consequently, “the respondent has been using thugs, land guards and the military to threaten members of the family into submission anytime he is opposed in his wrong doings,” they added.
The petitioners indicated that in or about the year 2010, the Banmu stool decided to enstool a queen mother of the stool.
However, soon after reaching the decision, “the respondent forcibly decided to install his sister as the queen mother of Banmu stool despite opposition from principal members of the family”.
“By his act and conduct, the respondent breached the oath he swore before the Okuapehene”, leading to his suspension from the Okuapehene’s Palace, they said.
The embattled chief’s customary duties have therefore been assigned to Adumhene.
By Awudu Mahama