It is sad, ridiculous and unbelievable to see Winneba once the most beautiful coastal town in Ghana and the pride of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah reduced to this miserable and disgraceful level the town finds itself in today. Both those who participated in this demise and those who looked on and said nothing must all bow down their heads in shame. Our children and grandchildren will never forgive us.

How did we arrive at this opprobrious place, who took us there and how can we get out? Sometime around the late 60’s to the 70’s a contractor domiciled in Winneba decided he will acquire a salt industry belonging to the Effutu Traditional Council by all means. He approached my grandfather Nana Ghartey V to take it by duress. The old man as sincere and truthful as he was refused to give in. This contractor promised him destoolment. The contractor got in touch with a Tufuhene who was himself having destoolment issues pending with the Traditional Council. This contractor brought other contractors and promised them land. Together with this Tufuhene they plunged Winneba into what we find ourselves today.

They created a non-existent royal family called Akramaano to start the manipulation of the psyche and the soul of the Efutus. From that time on, Efutus started destroying themselves. Families were broken up, marriages were destroyed, friends did not mind killing friends, properties were destroyed etc. Winneba became the hub of lawlessness with the blessing of those all-powerful contractors. The sad and unfortunate thing is that while the Efutus were fighting and destroying themselves, these contractors were looting their lands. Amidst all these chaos and anarchy, the royal family; - The Otuano Royal Family – sought redress with the courts. Court after court, they proved their case and after every victory for the royal family and loss to the contractors, this non-existing royal family changed its name. They started with Akramaano, then Ayerebi-Acquah House and finally settled with Anona-Tumpa. They did all these to throw dust in the eyes of government officials and confuse the courts, but none worked.

The remnants of those sycophants are what we are seeing in Essilfie Taylor and his educated followers. Kofi Essilfie Taylor thinks crime could be covered up by being a chief. Before he even thinks of plunging Winneba into another state of anarchy, he must do well to explain to the people of Winneba why he was not given or granted a license overseas to practice his dental education. He must also do well to tell us where all the monies he got from the lands he sold as he is imposing as chief are? If he does not do that I will be reluctantly compelled to take action to expose him. I wonder why Winneba and for that matter Efutus have allowed ourselves to be taken for granted by such criminals. Why do they see us as a breeding ground for their manipulations and crimes? Is it because our intelligentsias think they are too educated and too high up that their mother and father land does not concern them? Or is it because we have a lame duck chief who is himself not qualified to be there? Whatever the answer might be, Kofi Essilfie Taylor must know and understand that some of us will NEVER allow him to take the Efutus for a ride anymore.

I am asking our politicians not to allow themselves to be fooled by this man. I hear he is joggling to and from the corridors of our politicians and that quite recently a presidential aspirant visited Winneba and went to pay homage to him. (That issue will be addressed separately). Our politicians must be truthful and courageous and principled enough to help us attain peace. One other entity that can help us the Efutus is the House of Chiefs. They must adjudicate the case before them expeditiously so that a proper chief could be installed to confront such criminals like Essilfie Taylor and his cronies.

To my fellow Efutus, this is the time we need to stand up and say enough is enough our wine press has been trodden upon for far too long. Cast your eyes to your once lovely beaches and see what those dilapidated structures are doing to it. Again cast your eyes and look at the land where your town hall should have been and let us resolve to stand up for our homeland.

To Mr. Kofi Essilfie Taylor I want you to know that what you have done and want to do to the people of Winneba is crime against humanity and you won’t be spared.

Nana Akyeampong-Ghartey

Charlottesville, VA, USA

ngharteyk@embarqmail.com