Okyehene Accuses Past And Present Governments Of Persecution

The Overlord of the Akyem Abuakwa State, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II, has accused both past and present governments of subjecting his kingdom to political persecution. According to him, the Abuakwa Kingdom was paying for the �sins� of his late uncle, Osagyefo Ofori Panin, who supported Dr. J. B. Dankwa against Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle at Kyebi at the weekend, Osagyefo Ofori Panin said because his uncle decided to support Dr. J. B. Danquah against Dr. Nkrumah, the latter decided to punish his kingdom by denying them its due share of the national cake. He expressed regret at what Okyeman perceived as the failure of various administrations in this country to factor Akyim Abuakwa in their development projects. The Okyenhene said governments upon governments continue to see his kingdom as belonging to a particular party, and, therefore, deny his people access to development. He, therefore, appealed to President Mills� administration to help put an end to this wrong perception, and give the Abuakwa Kingdom its due share of the national cake. Osagyefo Amoatia noted that in terms of land expanse, the Akyem Abuakwa State was the largest in the Eastern Region, yet the indigenes were not getting developments that are commensurate with it. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the late Okyenhene, which has landed the Akyem Abuakwa State in trouble, Osagyefo Ofori Panin appealed to chiefs serving under him to be mindful of the comments they make in public, and also to avoid associating themselves with political parties. According to him, the development of the area should be their major concern, and not their association with political parties or politicians, who he described as crafty people. He warned that politicians and their political parties would come and go, but the Akyem Abuakwa State would remain forever, and, therefore, its chiefs must be more concerned with developments, instead of supporting politicians. On issues of illegal mining, the Okyenhene asked Ghanaians to blame governments for the spate of lawlessness and indiscipline that had engulfed the country. According to him, he disagrees with reports that his chiefs were part of the illegal activities, and rather accused the government and the security agencies of failing to bring illegal miners to book. He indicated that illegal mining was different from dealing in illicit drugs, where one would need empirical evidence before prosecuting the offenders.