Gunshots At Okyehene’s Palace

Danger is looming at Kyebi, the traditional capital of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area of the Eastern region, as a section of the youth allegedly fired gunshots in front of the Ofori Panin palace of the Okyehene, to prevent a royal of the Kyebi Asona family, Odehye Kwame Agyei Boateng from performing a ritual to challenge Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin to swear ‘Okyeman Ntamkese’ that he was not the brain behind illegal mining in the town.

Odehye Kwame Boateng, who made the allegations against the Okyehene in a number of media outlets last week that he was the brain behind illegal mining, popularly called galamsey at Kyebi and its environs, pointed out that behind Okyehene’s private residence at Kyebi, activities of galamsey were vigorously going on with the consent of the chief.

According to reports, when Odehye Kwame Boateng, in the company of some royals of Kyebi and under police escort, got to the shrine in front of the Ofori Panin Fie around 12.45pm yesterday, to perform the rituals, the youth barricaded the shrine and the palace to prevent him from performing the rituals and threatened that any ritual that was intended to destool the Okyehene would be fiercely resisted.

The police, who escorted Odehye Kwame Boateng and his group to perform the rituals, persuaded them to shelve the idea in the meantime in order to avoid bloodshed.

DAILY GUIDE’s intelligence has however picked up that Odehye Boateng was determined to perform the ritual at all cost and swear the ‘Okyeman Ntamkese’ to establish who is wrong or right.

According to sources, Odehye Boateng, who contested the Okyenhene, Amoatia Ofori Panin, for the Okyehene stool, was preparing to come back unannounced with heavy security to perform the intended ritual to prove that he was telling the truth.

When reached, Odehye Boateng confirmed his action, saying that he was provoked by some chiefs close to the Okyehene that he was not a royal and did not matter after he had made the allegation against the Okyehene.

He said as a royal, his concern was that Kyebi, which has important political and traditional history, had become the hotbed of a ‘disgraceful’ act like galamsey.

“Just come to Kyebi and you will feel sorry for the town with galamsey pits all over the place and our treasured Birim River also heavily polluted,” he said, adding that so far, four people including two little siblings and a student of ABUSCO, had fallen into open galamsey pits at Kyebi.

He wanted the whole world to know that the man who prided himself to be a crusader of preservation of “our environment is indeed an enemy to the environment and the future of our generation”.

Earlier in the day, some residents of Akyem Saamang, who had converged on Kyebi to demonstrate against illegal mining, were prevented by the police from undertaking the demonstration even though they had officially written to the police.

Some of the people close to the Okyehene, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, said Odehye Kwame Boateng was aggrieved because he was not chosen for the Ofori Panin stool and wanted to do something to destroy the reputation of the Okyehene.

As of the time of writing this story, Okyehene was said to be in Accra.