Elders of the Owuo We` Royal Family have released a statement under the hand of their Head of Family Samuel Nii Adumuah Okwei Nortey to debunk and discredit a certain video reportage in circulation purporting to show disarray within the ranks of the Owuo We` ahead of the scheduled installation of a new Chief of Osu.
He said, the video in circulation emanates from our cousins from Ajuwate whom history gives their background as people who came in to the House when their grandfather was adopted by the people of Owuo We` to serve as Osu Mantse at a time when they (Owuo We` Royal Family) could not find a candidate of right age in 1932.
The Head of family, Samuel Nii Adumuah indicated that their misunderstanding of the issues have been adjudicated upon at the various quarters including the Ga Traditional Council, Regional House of Chiefs and the tribunal court where at all times they had been floored on the grounds that they are not originally from Owuo We`
Below is a full statement debunking the alleged disturbances and a background history to the brouhaha?
PRESS RELEASE ON SUPPOSED OWUO WE DISTURBANCES
The Council of Elders of Owuo We have been made aware of a video circulating purporting to show disarray in the ranks of Owuo We. The persons who were covered in the reportage are our cousins from Ajuwate who came in to the house when their grandfather was adopted by us to serve as Osu Mantse at a time when we could find a candidate of the right age in 1932. This was Nii Noi Owuo II of blessed memory who was of maternal descent though our grand Aunty Naa Maku. To forestall any future issues an agreement was signed and witnessed by luminaries (78 ) of all four quarters to show that the adoption did not extend further but ended with him. He ruled in peace and when he neared his calling home, was brought to us at Osu Akoadjei, where we have lived but performed all our traditional rites as demanded at the family house at Amantra. We cared for him as Osu Mantsemei do not pass away in the palace.
He therefore died at Akoadjei his cousin, Nii Okwei Mensah Manfe’s residence. Since his death, his descendants have tried to take Owuo We as their own and insisted on a supposed right to be Mantse despite all rulings against them.
OSU IS A ‘PARTENAL’ INHERITANCE SOCIETY
The Regional House of Chiefs, Dodowa, on 17 August 1982, made it clear in the Afua Akrong & 4 others case that they are not partenally from Owuo We and this is how the tribunal put it: ‘those who nominated selected and installed him (Nii Nortei Owuo III) committed a gigantic fraud against Owuo We. Everything that was done was and remains a nullity. Accordingly, the the petitioners claim succeeds and they are entitled to a remedy..’ Hence our cousins at Amantra, could not be Osu Mantse. In fact, this is not their first attempt at crying wolf. At the trial at the Ga Traditional Council in 1990-1992, they also claimed to have created Owuo We. The Ga Traditional Council of which Osu was then a divisional member, made it clear that it was impossible and this is how the tribunal put it in their March 1992 judgement “since only two ruling Houses (we) provide candidates for Mantse for Osu, it is certainly most unlikely, that the 22nd chief (Nii Noi Owuo II) should be the one to establish “Owuo We” as the second ruling house in Osu. Owuo We from all indications preceded Nii Noi Owuo II” How can one who is adopted into something, and holds the number II be the first to start something?
They have also tried to make the stool name “Owuo” their last name when records show that their surname is in fact Noi. The stool name is reserved for occupants of the stool and nothing else. I repeat Owuo is a regal name not a surname. Finally they should be mindful of PNDC Law 38 which makes it impossible for them to re-litigate these matters.
After winning our initial cases against them we withheld from evicting them from our traditional house because we saw them as cousins, descendants of Naa Maku. In the interest of peace, we have tried to forge ahead and embrace them. However, it seems all has been for naught. In fact, on the matter of family head, three of the people they have brought to challenge the actual family head, Nii Samuel Adumuah Okwei-Nortey, have died. They have failed to bring the most recent one they are touting for reasons best known to them. Hence in the eyes of the law the only known claimant to head of Owuo We is Mr Samuel Nii Adumuah Okwei-Nortey and none other.
Staying on the topic of leadership, assertions have also been made on the constitution of the Osu Kinkawe Dzaase. The four Dzaase houses are Teinor We, Adjuate, Odartey Sro, and Adukpono. The traditional office holders from these houses form the accredited Dzaase. It is worth asking if these are the persons referred to as Dzaase in the letter that was read. If not, then what authority clothes any other group of people who refer to themselves as Dzaase? In the installation of an Osu Mantse, though, other Dzaase members have roles to play, it is the Osiahene who is needed in the stool room to perform the final rites of installation to make it official and non-other.
The stool in question is the Mark and Symbol of Authority for the installation of Osu Mantse. That Stool is with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, lies and distortions and tarnishing the image of innocent persons, have been allowed to run rampant for too long. Enough is enough. There will be no more assertions without evidence to back it up. It’s a new dawn for Osu and we will not allow sore losers to drag Osu back wards
We thank you for your attention
…………………………….
Samuel Nii Adumuah Okwei-Nortey
(Head of Family).
