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There is tension mounting in Akyem Oda in the Eastern Region over the alleged destoolment of the paramount queenmother of the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, Nana Akua Asantewaa III, by the Royal Agona Clan of Oda.

As part of the Akwasidae celebration last Sunday, members of the Royal Agona family, led by the Abusuapanin, Nana Kwaku Ofori Atta, performed customary rites and slaughtered a ram signifying the destoolment of Nana Asantewaa, who has reigned for the past 53 years.                

Following the performance of the rites, there was near collision between supporters on both sides of the divide but for the timely intervention of the Oda Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Ebenezer Ampofo, and the Oda Municipal Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Mohammed Issah Cantona. Consequently, police personnel were positioned at flashpoints in the town to forestall any disturbance of the peace.

Press conference
At a press conference held in Oda, Nana Ofori Atta accused Nana Asantewaa of installing a stranger in the person of the chief of Akyem Anyinase, Osabarima Owusu Gyamadu III, as the new Abusuapanin of the Royal Agona clan of Akyem Oda.

He said the installation of the Anyinasehene as the Abusuapanin of the Oda Agona Royal family was absurd because one could not be a chief and an abusuapanin (family head) at the same time.

Abusuapanin Ofori Atta said further that ever since the death of the Omanhene of the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, Okofrobuor Agyeman Attafua IV, some 16 years ago, Nana Asantewaa had deliberately failed to install a successor. 

Moreover, he said, Nana Asantewaa, without consulting anyone, went ahead and filed an affidavit on September 19, 2014, and presented it to the Judicial Committee of the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi in a suit number NHCI/C2009 detailing that the chief of Anyinase, Osabarima Owusu Gyamadu, was the legitimate Abusuapanin of the Royal Agona Clan of Akyem Oda.

Nana Asantewaa, he said, among other things, was purported to have asserted that“The chief of Anyinase has throughout history been the head of the Royal Agona family of Akyem Oda.”

But according to Nana Ofori Atta, the claim by Nana Asantewaa was not true since “the Anyinasehene is not a member of the Royal Agona family of Oda and therefore cannot become its head and, what’s more, perform any traditional customary rites on behalf of the family.”

Usurpation of authority
He stated: “By the queenmother’s claim that the Anyinasehene is the head of the Agona family of Oda, she is in effect telling the world that her family hails from Anyinasehene.” 

He said if that was the case, then the Royal Agona Clan of Oda would have lost its legitimacy to the Akyem Kotoku stool.

He accused the allegedly deposed queenmother of usurping the powers of the Omanhene, disposing of stool lands and entering into agreement with Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, from whom she was collecting royalties meant for the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area and pocketing them.

Abusuapanin Ofori Atta said on May 17, 2015, he invited Nana Asantewaa for a family meeting, but she refused to attend and rather insulted the messengers and drove them away from her house. 

“I am convinced that the queenmother’s conduct is not only detrimental to the interests of the royal family, but is also a threat to the stability of the entire Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, hence her destoolment,” he concluded.

Queenmother’s response
In a meeting with the press at her residence in Oda amid tight security, Nana Asantewaa condemned the action of the Abusuapanin and his followers and insisted that she was still the legitimate paramount queenmother of Akyem Kotoku. She stressed that with the exception of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs no one had the right to destool her.

She said she did not recognise the authority of anyone purporting to have destooled her. According to her, she did not know of Abusuapanin Ofori Atta because she had not been informed that an Abusuapanin of the Royal Agona Clan of Oda called Nana Kwaku Ofori Atta had been installed.

“The Abusuapanin of the Royal Agona family of Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area is Osabarima Owusu Gyamadu III, who was properly installed by  Okofrobour Agyeman Attafuah IV,” Nana Asantewaa said.

When newsmen contacted Osabarima Owusu Gyamadu at Anyinase, he narrated events leading to his rightful installation as the legitimate Abusuapanin of the Royal Agona family of Oda and the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area.