The acting Wulomo of Osu Klottey, Nii Noi Osekan Kpenuku is beating war drums as he psyches his people up for a showdown with Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, claimant to the Osu Mantse stool.
Nii Noi Osekan has made a clarion call on indigenes of Osu to prepare to resist attempts by Nii Kinka Dowuona VI to perform traditional rites at the Osu shrine on Friday.
The ban (Nmaa Dumor) and the lifting (Nmaa Faa), thus planting and harvesting of the first maize precedes the Homowo festival of the people of Osu.
According to the custom and tradition, it is only the Wulomo who has the right to perform such rites and not the chief.
The acting Wulomo, who questioned the legitimacy of Nii Kinka Dowuona, said his decision to unilaterally perform the rite is abominable and an affront to the customs and traditions of the people of Osu.
While urging the people to resist the intended invasion of Nii Kinka Dowuona and his supporters from the shrine, Nii Noi Osekan alleged that the former has deceived security chiefs in the area, thus, benefiting from constant police protection even while he conducts his “illegal activities”.
“It is an incurable abomination for the so-called occupant of the Osu stool to enter the shrine and perform the rites. They have perpetuated this abomination for the past 9 years and we won’t allow them to repeat that this time around,” Nii Noi Osekan warned in an exclusive interview with this reporter.
As he puffed and raged, the acting Wulomo minced no words by accusing the destooled Mankralo, who is known in private life as Samuel Okwei Nortei, of being in cahoots with the “so-called chief” to deny the people of Osu their right to respect the norms and traditions of their ancestors.
He contends that Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI was enstooled at a hideout bungalow near the Ghana Immigration Service office in Accra, adding that, his purported stool was bought at the Art Center.
“Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI is an imposter who has not seen the black stool of Osu before. His dubious activities are by some influential politicians. He is not from Osu and his family lineage cannot be traced,” Nii Noi Osekan alleged.
Asked whether police were aware of their intention to block the chief from performing the rite, he said “since the 2008 several attempts have been made to stop him, yet it did not yield any results”.
Last year, clashes ensued as Nii Okwei Kinka who doubles as the President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, sprinkled “kpoikpoi” through the Osu Ashante streets, one of the blocks in Osu, the same place where Nii Nortey Owuo had also gone to sprinkle the traditional food.
As custom demands, the Osu Chief is mandated to sprinkle the traditional food known as “Kpoikpoi” through the principal streets of the area.
Though the rival leaders had heavy police and military escorts, it did not stop their supporters who embarked on stone throwing and other exchanges prompting the police to fire warning shots.
Homowo, which means “hooting at hunger”, is celebrated annually after the harvest season across all Ga communities in the Greater Accra Region.
Background
Osu has been plagued with very serious chieftaincy litigation for the past 10 years since the quadrille group of E.T Mensah and Oko Vanderpuije aided the aggrieved Mankralo from a legal battle that ended at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled that the mere governmental withdrawal of recognition as it is obtained before the 1979-92 constitution operated to deprive the affected chief not of his customary status and functions as a chief but only his statutory functions.
That means Nii Nortey Owuo III’s position as the Osu Mantse was not touched or changed by the letter of withdrawal of recognition from the then Regional Administrative Officer.
The Osu stool was therefore not vacant and still not vacant with the occupant being Nii Nortey Owuo II
