Awodua Chieftaincy Clashes: No More Attacks - Queen Mother Assures

The queen mother of the troubled town of Awodua in the Wassa West district of the Western Region, Nana Afia Yaadwo has given a public assurance that her supporters would no more attack and hurt the followers of the embattled chief of the town, Nana Kobina Angu II.

She has therefore called on all those who have fled the mining town because of the chieftaincy dispute, and seeking refuge outside, to return without any fear of attack. The amnesty has also been extended to the supporters of Nana Angu, most of who are seeking refuge at Tarkwa, the district capital.

Addressing a heavily crowded news conference at Awodua last Friday to react to the earlier one held by Nana Angu and the allegations he leveled against her and the elders in the town, Nana Yaadwo said her decision to halt all hostilities and also grant unconditional amnesty to all those who have fled the town was influenced by the IGP, Nana Owusu Nsiah, who called her and advised that they follow the due process of the law to resolve the conflict without resorting to violence.

She admitted that her supporters attacked and chased the supporters of Nana Angu II from the town. Yaadwo who was flanked by her Krontihene, Nana Asantente and the elders in the town explained to the reporters that the attack on Nana Angu's supporters was provoked by an earlier attack on her supporters by Nana Angu.

She alleged that Nana Angu went and hired thugs who went round the surrounding villages of Awodua to attack her supporters without any provocation. In the process, she continued, a boy who has nothing to do with the dispute was severely wounded in the head after he had been hit several times with pestles.

The queen mother further said the boy is currently in critical condition at the 37 military hospital in Accra. She said though doctors have performed surgery on the enlarged head, the survival of the boy is still on the hands of God. We have already spent over 6million cedis on the boy, she added.

Nana Yaadwo further said it was based on what she described as unnecessary attacks on her supporters that they also took the law into their own hands and attacked and wounded some of Nana Angu's supporters who were also chased out from the town.

Touching on the attack on the medical assistant and teachers in the town which has led to the closure of the two institutions, Yaadwo explained that the boys went to the assistant's house with the sole aim of attacking his wife, Madam Sikayena who is a native of Awodua and a supporter of the Nana Angu. She said the medical assistant however thought he was going to be attacked and therefore decided to flee the town.

On the teachers she said nobody attacked any of them therefore the decision to stop teaching and the subsequent closure of schools in the town was a surprise to her. She however assured that all efforts would be made for the schools to be re-opened.

Touching on the root cause of the conflict itself, NanaYaadwo said ever since Nana Kobina Angu was installed as chief in 1992, stool lands revenue, which was hitherto collected by the elders of the town, was taken over by the chief, with no proper accounts of the proceeds being rendered to the elders.

She mentioned several millions of cedis, which she alleged had been collected by the chief without any proper accounts. Yaadwo said what broke the camel's back was an amount of ?426 million cedis he again collected early this year out of which only ?110million was rendered to the town committee.

The queen mother further told the reporters that most of these monies collected by Nana Angu could have been used to tar the 7km road from the town to link the main Tarkwa-Bogoso-Prestea road, but he has never thought of it.

Earlier, youth and some elders in the town went on a peaceful demonstration to protest against the alleged mismanagement of the mining town's resources by Nana Angu.

Some of the placards they carried read, "The youth want to see development," " Please abdicate for peace," " You greedy chief, go away," " Angu, a chief without a vision," " Nana Kobina Angu, give peace a chance," among others.

Speaking to reporters later, the youth leader of the town, Isaac Adamah said they want development but Nana Angu is not ready to co-operate with them, in order to achieve their goals.

"We no longer want him as our chief, so he should respectfully abdicate to pave way for peace in the area," he said, and added that Nana Angu has also been causing atrocities to the youth in the town through unnecessary arrests and maltreatment by the police.