Ga Chiefs Chicken Out

A planned meeting between the chiefs of the Ga State and the police authorities over the intended star-studded dumsor vigil march could not come off yesterday as the traditional authorities refused to show up.

The meeting was occasioned by petition tabled against the vigil scheduled for Saturday, May 16, 2016 over the power crisis that has bedeviled the nation for the past three years.

The Ga Traditional Council had asked the police to stop the event because they had imposed their annual customary ban on drumming and noise making ahead of the Homowo festival.

They believe the event, which is being led by rapper Sarkodie and movie stars, Yvonne Nelson and Lydia Forson, could result in noise making, even though organizers insist it would be a peaceful procession.

But when the time came for meeting to resolve the issue over the standoff, the Ga chiefs did not show up, raising suspicion of mischief on the part of the chiefs in order to throw a spanner in the wheel of the vigil.

The chief of Otublohum and acting Ga Mantse, NII Doodu Nsaki, was on radio forcefully arguing that they would never allow the vigil to take place.

Greater Accra Regional police spokesman, ASP Afia Tenge, said the Ga chiefs called to say they could not make it to the meeting and asked that it should be rescheduled for today, even though lawyers for the organizers of the event were present.

However, the Chief priest of La, (La-kpa Wulomo), Nuumo Yemoh Obroni VII, was said to have stormed the Regional Police Command office to challenge the claim of the Ga chiefs that the venue for the intended peaceful march; Legon – was part of Ga stool lands and affected by the ban.

He has vehemently argued that the area is under the La stool and therefore cannot be affected since the La traditional rulers had not imposed any such ban on noise making.

Sources however, told this paper that the Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Christian Tetteh Yehonu and his deputy, ACP Yosa Bonga, yesterday led a team of policemen to the proposed venue for the event to see things for themselves.

The police are therefore expected to meet with the Ga chiefs and lawyers for the organizers today and come out with a clear position as to whether the event would come on as originally planned or not.