<<Print>>

A sinister plot by some chiefs and people of Winneba to stop the celebration of this year�s annual Aboakyir festival of the Effutus in Winneba in the Central region of Ghana has been exposed. The 2014 Aboakyir Planning Committee at a press conference in Winneba yesterday to react to recent media reports that the festival has been suspended debunked the reports describing it as �highly deceptive and completely outrageous.� The 10th � 15th April, 2014 edition of the New Independent Newspaper quoting people the paper described as members of the Asafo companies claimed the Aboakyir festival had been suspended. Head of the Planning Committee of the festival, Mr. Alex Peter Acquah, who addressed a packed press conference, allayed the fears of the public and called on Ghanaians, particularly people of Winneba, to treat the reports with the disdain it deserves. He described the publication which cited some unknown members from the Edwinfo, Apagyafo Asam, Etibafo Asam of the Dentsifo and Tuafo Asafo companies of the Effutu State as �unfounded and completely malicious.� Mr. Acquah added that the publication was a grand calculation to destroy the already peacefully planned Aboakyir festival which was launched on April 1, 2014 and graced by the two Asafo companies in Winneba. He explained that after the launch, the Chairman of the Aboakyer Planning Committee, Alex Peter Acquah, represented by his vice, Neenyi Kojo Beedu V and Mr. Ghanney, were summoned to the office of the Regional Police Commander, Moses Ninson, in Cape Coast on Monday, 7th April, 2014 together with the Tufohen of Winneba to put in place the roadmap to ensure a peaceful celebration. �At that said meeting, we all resolved never ever to deny the citizenry of the Effutu State their long standing heart desire to celebrate this year�s Aboakyer with oneness and soundness of mind�again on Tuesday, 8th April, 2014 at the office of the Effutu Municipal Assembly, the presiding member, Very Rev. Eldad Bonney, a minister of the Methodist Church Ghana and a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, had separate meetings with the personnel present. The meeting, he said, was first with the Tufohen of Winneba, and thereafter met with the two Abaatan Kweku Armah-Sekum of Tuafo No.1 and Kweku Baiden of Dentsifo No.2. In attendance, he said, were Divisional Police Commander, Supt. Ahmed Issah Yakubu, and the Winneba Fire Service Commander.� At end of the day, Mr. Acquah revealed that the Abaatan as well as the Supis for the two Asafo companies all declared their togetherness to celebrate the festival without any trace of rancour that will mar the beauty of this wonderful occasion. �As if all did not go down well with the Tufohen, the Divisional Police Commander, Supt. Ahmed Issah Yakubu, reconvened yet other separate meeting in his office at Swedru on Thursday, 10th April, 2014. This time the two Abaatan were each accompanied by two other members (making six-member committee) of three elders of Tuafo Asafo Company and three elders of Dentsifo Asafo Company.� �� At the end of the meeting held at Swedru, the Divisional Commander of Police, Supt. Ahmed Issah Yakubu requested from the two Abaatan, a copy of the programme of activities for the Aboakyer 2014,� he said. Hence, he could not understand why the two Asafo groups which have openly declared their willingness and readiness to celebrate the 2014 Aboakyir festival in grand style to be planning of stopping the celebration. He therefore called on the two Abaatan and their accompanied Supis to disassociate themselves from the said reportage by declaring that nobody had held any meeting or press conference with the two Asafo companies let alone infiltrate their camps to cause mayhem and confusion among the peace-loving people of Winneba. �Looking at the issues as they unfold, who is spilling milk and who in his own small way is muddying the waters upstream and trying to apportion blame downstream?,� he asked. The chairman for the 2014 Aboakyir Planning Committee reiterated the committee�s position on celebrating this year�s Aboakyir festival and cautioned the media to desist from using their platforms for people whose actions will discredit the work of the Aboakyir 2014 Planning Committee. �I wish to stress here that you do not in any way grant interviews, press conferences or otherwise to any identifiable or unidentifiable group outside this August Body,� he stressed. Mr. Acquah also called on Ghanaians to treat any material or article coming from such people with the highest contempt.