Some elders and people of Banka in the Eastern region have petitioned the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin III to initiate the necessary customary rites to destool the Chief of Banka, Osabarima Twiampoma III, for allegedly stealing a huge sum of US$150,000 meant for community infrastructural development to promote the lives of the citizens.
The petitioners want the Okyehene and his council of elders to investigate Osabarima Twiampoma on the fact that his affection for theft and monocraticleadership are beyond imagination. The groups also accuses the Bankahene of misusing the name of the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin to intimidate his subjects, which has been regarded as a brazen assault on the core values of the stool of Akyem Abuakwa.
READ FULL PETITION
You’reEminence; I am petitioning you and the council of elders to investigate Osabarima Twiampoma III, the chief of Banka. The transgressions of Osabarima Twiampoma III ARE NOT ONLY SERIOUS. His affection for theft, monocratic leadership and the misuse of the name of His Eminence to intimidate his subjects is a brazen assault on the core values of the stool of Akyem Abuakwa.
Somewhere in the mid-1980s
, Osabarima Twiampoma III (Kofi Frimpong) worked at the Achimota secondary school as a messenger in the Accounts Office. He orchestrated a criminal scheme, that’s he misappropriated monies belonging to the school. Fearing arrest, Nana Twiampoma III left Ghana for Liberia. He sneaked into the country in 1994. In 2002 Osabarima Twiampoma III was enstooled as the Chief of Banka without thorough background checks; a lapse in judgment the citizens of Banks would later come to regret.
Since becoming Chief, Osabarima Twiampoma III has steadily shown patterns of conduct that border on criminality. in 2011, the Gulf Coast Resources limited issued a cheque No,534403 in the amount of US$150,000(One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ) to the people of Banka as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility to the town. Osabarima Twiampoma III secretly collected and cashed the cheque without the knowledge of his chiefs, elders and the people. Osabarima Twiampoma III used proceeds from the cheque to build a house at Kasoa SCC
Challenged on numerous occasions by his subjects about the cheque, Osabarima Twiampoma III denied ever collecting the said cheque. He denied taking a pesewa from the Gulf Coast Resources limited. He would later admit to the Police upon his arrest and detention at the Criminal Investigations Department, Police headquarters that he collected and cashed the cheque. Upon a thorough investigations and his inculpatory admission , Osabarima Twiampoma III was officially charged with stealing under the Dishonest Appropriation Act -section 125 of the Criminal offences Act – Act 29 clause 60 and was arraigned before s court where he was remanded into prison custody .
Osabarima Twiampoma’s claim that the cheque which he initially denied receiving was issued to him for his personal use and not to the Banka community shows on thing. His knack for lies even in the face of insuperable evidence. Your eminence, on what ground would an incipient company , struggling to find its proverbial feet in the uncharted and difficult territory of the mining business issue a cheque of US$ 150, 000( One hundred and Fifty Thousand American Dollars) to a chief?
What is even more incriminating in this matter was that on the receipt dated 14/12/2011, signed by Osabarima Twiampoma III clearly spelt out in plain language that the cheque was meant for Bankaman, its chief and elders and that the cheque was the company’s contribution towards the development of the community. Nowhere on the receipt did it remotely state that the cheque was meant for the personal use of Osabarima Twiampoma III.
Your eminence, the laws of the Kingdom of Akyem Abuakwa and the dominions over which you preside are supreme. As I understand them these laws enjoins chiefs to serve the Kingdom and the King to whom they swore allegiance with honesty. thus , a chief who steals at the least opportunity : a chief who deprives his subjects of the resources allocated for the development of the community ; a chief who uses the name of his eminence, the Okyehene to expropriate the lands for pecuniary gains and denies his subjects remedies to harms inflicted on them is underserving of the stool he occupies.
Your eminence, Osabarima Twiampoma II is a quintessence of daylight robbery. His unapologetic abuse of power is never seen in the history of Banka. It is for the aforementioned reasons and other shameful accounts that may emerge at some point that I humbly petition you and your council of elders to destool Osabarima Twiampoma III. Do nothing in an hour of need and on account of airing our dirty laundry in public will only encourage Osabarima Twiampoma III to oppress your subjects inviting antipathy in the process.
I thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
Elders and People of Banka
