Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Akyem Maase
THE refusal of a rival royal family to allow the burial of a sub-chief from the opposing royal family at the royal mausoleum at Akyem Maase in the Eastern Region, is creating tension in the town.
Opanin Kwasi Marfo, the Abakomahene from the Afi Tantia family died in September 2002 and had since been in the morgue at the Kyebi Government Hospital. The body was not allowed by the Ataa Bawa family to be laid at the mausoleum. The claim was that the late chief was a slave and could therefore not be buried there.
The two royal families had over the past 50 years been at each other’s throat over who should nominate an occupant to the stool.
The Ataa Bawa family, therefore, placed an injunction to that effect at the Circuit Court in Koforidua which ruled in favour of the Afi Tantia family after which Ataa Bawa was to be buried at the mausoleum.
The matter went to the Appeal Court, which referred it back to the Circuit Court.
At a press conference at Akyem Maase last weekend, the Afi Tantia family made a passionate appeal to President John Agyekum Kufuor to, as a matter of urgency, use his authority to find an amicable solution to the chieftaincy dispute as well as determine the status of the late Abakomahene.
The Abusua Panin of the Afi Tantia family, Opanin M. B. Twum-Antwi, who made the appeal in an address read on his behalf, also called on the Koforidua High Court to conduct a speedy trial in the matter of the burial of the late chief.
According to him, for peace to prevail at Maase, no person from either the Ataa Bawa or the Afi Tantia family should be allowed to parade himself as chief of Maase until the case had been determined in court.
“We wish to state emphatically that we, the Afi Tantia Family and the citizens of Maase, will never allow the outdooring of the new chief from the Ataa Bawa Family and so whatever is needed to bring peace and harmony should be done as a matter of urgency,” he stated.
Giving the background into the chieftaincy dispute between the two royal families, Opanin Twum-Antwi said both families, who were from the same ancestry, had each ascended the Maase stool five times indicating that the Ataa Bawa faction was the last to ascend the stool and that it was the turn of the Afi Tantia family to also occupy it.
However, he said, the Ataa Bawa faction had objected to the former ascending the stool on the premise that they were slaves and therefore did not befit the status of a royal family. He thus declared the Ataa Bawa family as the only royal family at Maase.
Opanin Twum-Antwi said they had the hint that the Bawa family had fixed a date after April 25, this year, to ‘outdoor’ one Kwame Adu Asare as the chief of Akyem Maase.
He recalled that long before the issue was sent to the law courts and the Akyem Abuakwa Judicial Committee over the past 50 years, the late Nana Kwaku Antwi Bosompem II of the Ataa Bawa faction took the Afi Tantia faction to the judicial committee of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council in 1990 with a declaration that “the Afi Tantia Family are slaves and, therefore, do not benefit the status of a royal family.”
He said judgement was given in favour of the Afi Tantia family on July 30, 1993, but an appeal against the judgement was lodged at the Eastern Regional Tribunal Court in Koforidua on October 18, the same year, by the Ataa Bawa family.
Opanin Twum-Antwi said before judgment could be given on December 5, 1999, Nana Bosompem died in February 2000, so the case was adjourned.
He said on June 5, 2000, the Regional Tribunal requested Kwame Wiafe Dankwa, the Abusua Panin of Ataa Bawa family (the plaintiff) to find a substitute for the late Nana Bosompem for judgement to be given but he declined without any tangible reason and the case had since been pending at the court.
Opanin Twum-Antwi stated that in the process, Opanin Kwasi Marfo, the then Abakomahene of Maase, who was the first defendant from Afi Tantia family, also passed away in September 2002.
He said just as he was about to be buried at the royal mausoleum in January 2003, the other faction placed an injunction on the burial at the Koforidua Circuit Court on January 15, 2003 and the corpse had since been in the morgue.
The Abusua Panin said when the case was called at the circuit court, the judge ruled in favour of the Afi Tantia family, a situation that forced the latter to appeal against the ruling at the Appeal Court in Accra, adding that “judgement was made against them and were ordered to go back to the Circuit Court at Koforidua for the case to be determined but the Ataa Bawa Family withdrew the case from the court.
“While the Afi Tantia Family was preparing to bury Opanin Marfo, another injunction was placed on the burial at the Koforidua High Court on January 5, 2006.
Opanin Twum-Antwi stated that as part of efforts to restore calm to the area, the then Eastern Regional Police Commander invited both factions to his office in Koforidua on January 16, 2008 and advised that the two chiefs should step down after which a caution bond was prepared for each family to sign.
He said the Afi Tantia family adhered to the bond but the Ataa Bawa family refused to abide by it and decided to go ahead and enstool the chief.
Meanwhile, tension is mounting in the town, once again.
People have vowed to resist any enstooling of a chief by the Ataa Bawa family.
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