Four embattled divisional chiefs of Kumawu Traditional Area were on Monday imprisoned for contempt by a Kumasi high court.
Nana Akwasi Baffoe II of the Akwamu division and his counterparts from the Akyempem division – Nana Okyere Krapah, Nana Sarfo Agyekum II, ex-Aduanahene and Nana Akwasi Okyere Darko Fordjour, ex-Nsumankwahene – were jailed for failing to comply with an order of the court, presided over by Justice Jacob Boon.
The convicts were said to have caused false publications in the Daily Graphic newspaper on March 18 and 27 this year, which were found to be misrepresentations of the court’s proceedings in a chieftaincy dispute to which they are parties.
The court found the conduct of the chiefs to be disrespectful to the administration of justice and convicted them accordingly.
Their plea for clemency through their attorney, Joseph Sam, was rejected by the court, which slapped a total of 35 days’ jailed term on them.
Queen mother of Kumawu, Nana Serwah Amponsah, who is involved in a fracas with the four, had prayed for the embattled chiefs to be convicted in an ex-parte motion brought before the court for the misrepresentation of the matter.
The dispute followed the installation of Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua as the paramount chief of Kumawu.
They had earlier approved the chief’s nomination and consequently agreed to allow him to ascend to the stool, but parted ways whilst preparations were underway, leaving the Gyasehene and the Nifahene to perform the needed traditional rites.
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, angered by their refusal to swear allegiance to Barima Sarfo Twereboa Koduah, ordered that they be destooled, which was duly complied with.
Nana Akwasi Baffoe II, Nana Sarfo Agyekum II, and Nana Okyere Krapah on January 12, 2015, installed 56-year-old John Akwasi Oduro, a telecommunication technician, as a rival chief to the Kumawu paramount stool amidst tension.
Akwasi Oduro, who was working with the British Royal Mill, Post High Grade, London, was given a stool name, Twereboa Kodua V.
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