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Chiefs of Denkyira-Obuasi have reportedly changed the name of the town to New Obuasi to make up the rather bad image the town has acquired, following the lynching of Major Maxwell Adam Mahama.

The decision follows a consensus the chiefs of the town reached.

Denkyira-Obuasi is a town in the Central Region that became infamous on Monday, May 29 after some residents purportedly mistook a soldier on duty for an armed robber and lynched him. Then Captain Maxwell Mahama, who was posthumously promoted to a Major, was an officer with the 5th Infantry Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces. He was said to have been on an anti-galamsey assignment at Denkyira-Obuasi.

Moments before his death, he was reported to have been on an early morning jogging exercise when a resident raised a distress alarm claiming the officer was an armed robber. He was consequently lynched by a mob. The aftermath of the sad incident has led to many fleeing the town, turning it into a ghost one. Most of the youth are in police custody, facing trial for the murder. Every other activity in the town has become very slow. Even though the town is gradually coming back to life, there is still some stigma and disdain for the town. The chiefs have thus decided to change the name of the town as part of their efforts to make the town regain its lost dignity.