Open Letter To Volta Regional Police Commander

DCOP Bernard Guyiri, the VR Police Commander, was recently in the news again refuting claims by his ex-while NPP taskmasters that electoral fraud and violence had taken place in the VR. Being the chameleon and political animal that he is, we were not surprised by his alleged remarks, some of which, for example, that the VR was made up of one ethnic group, bothered on the most ridiculous. The intention of this write-up is not to challenge his no-smoking-guns claims but draw attention to his infamous letter in support of the erstwhile NPP regime gross abuse of the human rights of the people of Anlo and implore the Mills Administration to rid us of this wily, unprincipled and untrustworthy police commissioner. In fact, he should be probed and sent on retirement in order to pave the way to a professional security service devoid of political manipulation and misuse in our forward march to a society based on the rule of law.

In reacting to your (Dery’s) published letter in the Tuesday, November 6, 2007 issue of the Chronicle, we feel ourselves duty bound to completely agree with you in your sum up in paragraph 18 of your letter to the effect that the Police are not kingmakers of our Awoamefia and neither would they make themselves the 3rd Ruling Clan of Anlo, in addition to the Bate and the Adzorvia clans. If that were the case, why did you allow the Police under your command to succumb to and support the machinations of some NPP top men to impose an imposter upon us as Awoamefia?

We also agree with you in toto, Mr. Dery, on your candid REALIZATION, as spelt out in your letter, that values, customs and traditions of your own Dagomba people and, for that matter, people of the entire Northern sector, differ diametrically in structure, content and practice from the values, customs and traditions of the Anlo State.

Judging from your own unequivocal acknowledgement of this fact, that values, customs and traditions of people tend to differ greatly in structure and practice from place to place according to socio-economic and environmental influences, coupled with other damnable factors as well, why do you, Mr. Dery, in the first place, try feverishly to invite and persuade us to see the traditional status, rules and the responsibilities of the so-called “Regent” of the Anlo State?

And secondly, why do you turn round then, Mr. Dery, to subtly and discreetly suggest to us in your letter that the “Regent” of the Anlo State may not be different from the Regent of the Dagbon State who, according to your assertion, is empowered with high-level traditional status, rules, responsibilities, etc, etc.? Don’t you think that by these assertions of yours, you are virtually poking your nose into the delicate matters of the Anlos? The Anlo public demands from you complete and total answers to its pertinent questions directed to you above.

Take it from us, Mr. Dery, that it is an incontrovertible fact that the customs and the traditions of both the Anlo and the Dagbon States are not the same; they invariably differ in structure and practice from each other’s communities.

Even though the provision for the office of Regent is hundred percent popular with all the existing lower stools of Anlo, created on the battlefield for some daring individuals some years back and, in recognition for some spectacular feats of bravery and/or gallantry displayed by such heroes, yet such provision for the office of Regent does not exist within the context of the Awoamefia Stool.

This is so, because our forefathers viewed their Awoamefia stool, which is not a battlefield creation, as the embodiment of the soul and spirit of their community. Commensurate with all the sanctity with which this stool was held, our forefathers therefore formulated a mechanism whereby they tried to make succession to the stool smooth and easy, with the passing of times.

This time-tested mechanism handed over to us by our forefathers has no provision for the office of Regent. By this invaluable arrangement, on the death of Awoamefia, the Awadada of Anlo who is, by virtue of his position, the second-in-command of authority and Commander-in-Chief of Anlo, automatically becomes the Acting Awoamefia and Acting President of the Anlo Traditional Council. It is on the Awadada on whom the baton of leadership falls and enjoined by Anlo customs and tradition to quickly form a nucleus of Kingmakers comprising the Heads of various Clans of Anlo, in preparations for the acceptance or approval of the candidate yet to be presented to them (kingmakers) by members of the Royal Family for subsequent installation which normally takes place after about six months, following the initial “indooring” of the prospective candidate.

From the clarifications and explanations given so far, Mr. Dery, you will agree with us that your TINGOD, Seth Lumorvi Atitsogbui, is a complete fraudster and usurper of the highest order. He is a fraud because, with the help of Napoleon Agboada (who is tainted with the same brush as he is), he cleverly wove his way through and succeeded in bribing with money 15 members of the Agboada Family (the names are kept in tact on our file) into selecting him as “Regent” to the Awoamefia Stool at a meeting held by the infamous group at Anloga on 1st February, 2003. This happened without the consent of the accredited Heads and Principal Members of the 3 Houses of the Adzorvia Clan.

And surprisingly, with the complicity and support of the “powers-that-be”, this Seth Lumorvi Atitsogbui, with his fake name ‘Francis Nyonyo Agboada’, emerged from that highly unconstitutional, undemocratic and unlawful meeting of 1st February, 2003 and started parading the length and breadth of Ghana, portraying himself as “Regent Torgbi Sri III”. That in itself was a sacrilegious act against the Adzorvia Clan, of which he is not a member, in particular and the Anlo State in general!

Your flat accusation leveled against the entire citizenry of Anlo for failing to put in place a concerted effort in bid to resolve the Chieftaincy impasse which rages in the area for about eleven years now, is damnably and horribly unfair. It is horribly unfair in the sense that, had you but taken the trouble to dig into the merits of the so-called Francis Nyonyo Agboada’s self-portrayal of himself as Regent Torgbi Sri III, you would not have come out with such flimsy accusations at all.

As earlier mentioned in this write up, Anlo have a time-tested mechanism by which they guarantee smooth and easy succession to the Awoamefia Stool devoid of any problems. And true to the word from their ancestors, soon after the death of Torgbi Adeladza II in 1997, this time-tested arrangement was called into play and the late Torgbi Nyaho-Tamakloe IV, even though he was not the Awadada of the Anlos at that material time, customarily and traditionally took over the administration of the Anlo Traditional Area in his capacity as the Left Wing War Lord, because the Awadada and the Right Wing War Lord, Torgbi Gbordzor of Woe, were yet to be installed.

And as sooner had the Awadada of the Anlos been installed and gazetted than the baton of the administration of the Area was duly handed over to him according to the demands of customs and tradition, by the late Torgbi Nyaho-Tamakloe IV who held the fort for him in the interim.

This put-in-place arrangement worked so successfully without any stumbling blocks standing in its way that, it was possible to hold our ever-treasured Hogbetsotso Festival once again under the auspices of the Awadada of Anlo, with the usual pomp and pageantry that normally characterize the celebration.

It will interest you that it was this same dubious character, Francis Nyonyo Agboada, who came on the scene and, with the connivance and complicity of the “powers that be”, threw the whole organization, hence the State of the Anlos into disarray.

We want to tell you at this point that the Anlos are a kindred family from one and same pedigree, knitted closely together by a compendium of interests which they always lavishly play upon to resolve intelligibly and understandably matters of any sensitive nature that crop up amongst them. It is not in the nature of Anlo man to hate his brother or sister simply because his brother or sister belongs to a particular political party.

We are fully aware of the DUALITY in nature. In fact, we were very active politicians before and after Ghana’s independence. But, with our bitter past experiences, we have chosen to tread the path of neutrality, that is, not to belong to any political party in Ghana today. The reason being that, we want to be free and vote according to the dictates of our conscience at any given time of voting, after having studied carefully the political climate prevailing in the country at the time, Mr. Dery. You may cross-check the veracity of this statement with Registrars of the various political parties in Ghana, if you so please.

So, when you falsely assert in paragraph 7 of your letter that the Anlos are after the BLOOD of the so-called Francis Nyonyo Agboada and that, the basis of Anlos’ hatred for Francis Nyonyo Agboada and his followers stems from the fact that they are active supporters or sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party, you have definitely fallen off the track in your presumption. Nothing can be so far from the truth such as this your assertion. It is all RUBBISH.

It is indeed an ignoble attempt to set the truth upside down, forgetting that TRUTH, like the cork in water, will eventually come up to the surface, no matter how long it is forced to remain in suppression under water. Most probably, you don’t know, Mr. Dery, that the number of N.P.P. supporters in Anlo is so insignificant that, nobody cares about them – let alone envy them for anything.

Affirmatively, Anlos actually have an axe to grind with your Tingod, Francis Nyonyo Agboada, but not with the urge to have his blood licked. Seth Lumorvi Atitsogbui is our own kith and kin, hailing from Amlade Clan of Anlo, but not from the Royal Clan of Anlo and, for that matter, does not qualify in any way to attempt, with your complicity, to shamelessly usurp the sacred Awoamefia Stool and become the next Awoamefia of the Anlos.

As part of his clandestine strategy, this so-called Francis Nyonyo Agboada, in the skin of an IGNORAMUS, successfully aligned himself to the powers that be, in the hope to win their favour in destroying and destabilizing the customs, tradition and culture of the Anlos. But he failed miserably.

The Anlos are quite a different type of people endowed with specific potentials. They are always resolutely prepared to fight to the last man of the land to defend their heritage handed over to them by their forebears, no matter how fierce the battle. No amount of threat, shootings and whatnots could ever compel the Anlos to submit to your knavish tricks.

Mr. Dery, you stated in your letter that any major security operations within the Anlo State or affecting the Anlo State come as a result of the Volta Regional Security Committee’s decision. You also stated in paragraph 5 of your letter that Security Agencies including the Military, the Police, BNI, etc, enforce decisions and orders made by the District, Regional and National Committees/Council. You also stated, inter alia, that no single individual at any level of command can embark unilaterally upon major operations without consulting or collaborating with other stake-holders in the game. Don’t you think this is a plausible sign of true democracy at work, which augurs well for our baby-born democracy for the future, Mr. Dery?

Taking you by your own words in paragraph 3, we understand that any Regional Police Commander is enjoined by his professional ethics and conventions to FIRST consult his Regional Security Committee and his IGP on any major decisions calling for the deployment of Police personnel to enforce or implement such police directives within the Region prior to the actual movement of Police personnel to the area of operation.

Well, Mr. Dery, if this is the normal process always followed, would you agree with us that the callous, indiscriminate shooting of the youth of Anloga by the Police on that fateful day of Thursday, November 1, 2007 was the result of policy directives emanating from the Volta Regional Security Committee and or the IGP – taking into consideration that the youth of Anloga on that Thursday were virtually unarmed and had only their bare hands as a means of defense?

You as a Northerner, we are pretty sure you are fully aware of the hostilities that exploded in the North in Yendi and during which atrocities the overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, was brutally murdered and beheaded in broad day-light with Police nearby doing nothing to stop the fighting.

How do you Mr. Dery, sincerely and honestly feel about this incident? We hope you do not expect that gruesome incident to happen in Anloland in exactly the manner it did happen in Dagbon some years past?

By the way, Mr. Dery, are you an NPP. Police Officer or Ghana Police Officer? Contrariwise, if you are not an NPP. Police Officer, why then do you choose to openly canvass for the NPP. as shown by you in paragraph 13 of your letter?

In what perspective do you put these assertions of yours in paragraph 13 of your letter because the NPP. government had successfully organized, delivered and achieved its political objectives, many more people are won into its fold?

And what about your warning note to Mr. Raymond Okudjeto and “his clique” not to discourage, frustrate and prevent people from moving from one party to join the NPP? To your mind. Mr. Dery, is this not a clear-cut question of canvassing for a particular party? Your eleventh hour jumping of camp when it was very clear that the NPP was losing the elections therefore does not fool us.

The gods of Anlo are anxiously watching and awaiting your credible answers to the above-mentioned pertinent questions, Mr.Dery.

You again falsely stated in paragraph seven of your letter that Anlos are after the blood of so-called Francis Nyonyo Agboada and that, the basis of Anlos’ hatred for him stems from the fact that he is a supporter of the ruling NPP government. As stated earlier on in this write-up, this is all RUBBISH – a figment of your own imagination, Mr. Dery!

You mentioned in paragraph 5 of your letter that the group of Concerned Citizens of Anlo, of which Mr. Raymond Okudjeto is its Chairman, as engaging in clandestine and nefarious activities in the area. And you also highlighted Mr. Raymond Okudjeto before the Ghanaian public as a trouble-maker and national security risk. No wonder, this is what your paymasters ask you to say in order to hide the diabolical maneuvers of the powers that be.

Do you wish to tell us that, because patriotic citizens of Anlo, who, in the exercise of their inalienable, fundamental human rights, stand up to defend the heritage of their dear father land, be regarded as criminals?

Mr. Dery, take it from us that all your calculated ploys put up as a cover to hide your clear-cut complicity and collusion in this whole Chieftaincy Affairs of the Anlos, will NEVER DETER Mr. Raymond Okudjeto and his men from challenging ILLEGITIMACY in their Anloland. Long live Raymond Okudjeto and his men!

Before we fold up, we wish to have it registered categorically on record that, Torgbi Hor II, the Makorsor of Somey, Torgbi Amenya Fiti V, the Fiaga of Aflao, Torgbi Adra Kpanya V, the Fiaga of Afife, Torgbi Gamor V, the Fiaga of Ave-Havi, Torgbi Dzoku IV, Fiaga of Dzodze, Regent Torgbi Dadzi IV, the Fiaga of Fenyi, Awadada Morti VIII, representing the Fiaga of Ave-Afiadenyigba, Torgbi Sewor IV, the Dufia of Agavedzi-Somey, and Torgbi Dukli Attipoe, the self-styled state Linguist of Anlo, all of whom purportedly claim the Anlo Traditional Council to themselves as their bonafide property, have no RIGHT or CAPACITY whatsoever to install any Chief in Anlo for us, as reported in the Daily Graphic, Saturday, November 3, 2007 edition to the effect that, the above-mentioned shameless Chiefs from Somey, Aflao, Penyi, etc, were at Anloga on that fateful day of November 1, 2007 to perform “FINAL RITUALS” towards the installation of the Awoamefia.

This is the crux of the matter. Never in the history of the Anlos had Somey, Aflao, Ave, Fenyi, Afife and Agavedzi installed a Chief for us in Anlo. If these chameleon-faced, shameless Nyonyo Agboada money-grabbers, particularly Torgbi Hor II, the Makorsor of Somey, who, for a very long time, distanced himself from the Anlo Traditional Council but now, for reasons best known to himself, chooses to come back into the fold, that’s fine! Not only to Torgbi Hor II is a hearty welcome extended but also to all Chiefs of the “Diaspora.”

However, they are strictly warned not to delve into the Anlo Chieftaincy Affairs, simply because they do not install Chiefs for us as they tried to do in complicity with their tingod, the so-called Francis Nyonyo Agboada. At best, by pure force of truth, any already-installed Chief in Anlo is just presented to that Traditional Council for recognition as one of the members of such Traditional Council. There is no question about this, Mr. Dery.

Lastly, Mr. Dery, allow us to reiterate that no amount of shooting at us and threats can ever force us to accept your tin god, Francis Nyonyo Agboada, who is someone nowhere near the Awoamezi Stool, even as a messenger in the Court of any Hanua or Asafoka at Anloga – let alone as the Awoamefia of the Anlos. We hope the Mills administration take notice of this and rid us of this dubious political operative in police uniforms.

A WORD TO THE WISE IS ENOUGH!

Source:

DR. A. KOBLA DOTSE, AN EMENEFA SUSUTIALA

dotse@earthlink.net