The Minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, Dr. Seidu Daanaa, has appealed to the youth of Kpone Traditional Area near Tema to allow peace to prevail in the fishing community and allow the traditional council operate for the betterment of the township.
However, the minister called on chiefs and traditional leaders to desist from actions that would flare anger.
Dr Daanaa made the plea when addressing a news conference concerning the recent youth agitations against the Kpone Traditional Council (KTC) and chieftaincy cases in Tamale in the Northern Region.
He advised the youth and any person who had a problem with the chieftaincy institution to use due process than resorting to violence.
The youth of Kpone on March 19, 2015 embarked on a demonstration against the traditional authorities and clashed with the police detailed to provide protection for them.
Twenty-one persons, including seven police personnel, were confirmed to have sustained injuries as a result. The injured persons were sent to the Kpone Health Centre where they were treated and discharged on the same day, but two were referred to the Tema General Hospital.
The youth complained about the indiscriminate sale of traditional lands, especially cemetery lands, by some traditional leaders of the council without accountability, demanding for the transfer of the council registrar, Mr Harry Anthony Atipoe.
Some of the angry youth went on to lock up the offices of the traditional council and chased some of their leaders out, demanding for a total dissolution of the council.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicated that the youth had handed over the keys to the padlocks used in locking up the traditional council to their leaders after a meeting held at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) in Accra.
Greater Accra Regional Minister Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo chaired the meeting between the three parties, namely, the traditional council, Kpone- Katamanso District Assembly (KKDA) and the leadership of the Concerned Youth of Kpone (CYK).
Following the transfer of the KTC registrar, the President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, the Paramount Chief of Kpone Traditional Area, Nii Tetteh Otu and some members of the chieftaincy ministry held a meeting to appoint someone to replace Mr Atipoe.
But Dr Daanaa, who expressed his office’s readiness to resolve the matter, noted that acts of violence used by persons who are aggrieved by the actions of some traditional heads negatively affect the growth and the needed progress of the chieftaincy institution.
‘All traditional councils operate within their respective traditional areas as provided for by the chieftaincy Act 759, 2008. The staff who manage this traditional council are civil servants recruited by government to administer [it] in accordance with the chieftaincy act. It is unacceptable for anyone to take the law into his hands in anyway that might endanger the lives or property in the traditional council.
‘If anyone at the traditional council, be it a chief or staff, indulges in a conduct which amounts to crime, the matter must be reported to the police for appropriate criminal proceedings to be initiated against him or her
BY Vincent Kubi & Nii Ogbamey Tetteh
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.