Daasebre Oti Boateng is still our Chief

Professor Emeritus Oti Boateng

The New Juaben Traditional Council has described the action by some of its sub-chiefs in the purported destoolment of Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng as criminal.

A statement by the Asomkahene of New Juaben, Adjin Asamoah Kwame, at a press conference on Friday said, “The New Juaben Traditional Council wishes to inform the public that Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng has not in anyway been destooled and that he still remains the substantive Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Area.”

The New Juaben Traditional Council said it had disassociated itself from the insulting behaviour and illegal act by the sub-chiefs.

The Asomkahene said the said chiefs were not divisional chiefs or kingmakers and therefore have no mandate to either enstool or destool the Omanhene.

He stated that their conduct contravened Section 40, sub-section 1 of the chieftaincy Act 2008 (Act 759) which states that “a person is not entitled to institute proceedings for the deposition of a chief unless that person is entitled to do so under the customs of the area concerned.”

He quoted a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Sarkodie vs. Kwaku Boateng and a book (The Law of Chieftaincy in Ghana) authored by Justice S.A. Brobbey to buttress his point, stressing that before a destoolment of a chief, there must first be charges preferred against the chief by majority of the kingmakers.

Thereafter investigation must be carried into the charges; compliance to the rules of natural justice before actual customary process of destoolment is performed.

“Thus in this modern day and age, a chief cannot be destooled by merely slaughtering of a sheep and pouring libation or removing a chief’s sandals,” it said, describing the process as outmoded and antiquated practices.

The New Juaben Traditional Council bemoaned the disrespectful manner in which the sub-chiefs invoked Otumfuo’s Ntamkese and deeply apologised for the error.

It also accused the sub-chiefs of insulting the Omanhene which it said was also a criminal act.

Explaining further, the Asomkahene said some members of the council had reported the matter to the police.

He expressed the hope that criminal charges would soon be preferred against them.

It would be recalled that a group of aggrieved chiefs in the New Juaben Traditional area, led by the Abesimhene, Baffour Akwasi Adarkwa and Nseniehene Nana Yaw Annor Boateng, performed some rituals and invoked their the spirits of their ancestors and gods, as well as the Asantehene’s Ntamkese to destool the Omanhene for what they termed as his corrupt regime and dictatorship.

They further accused him of disregarding authority and customs of the people.

They said due to his conduct, the Asantehene, who is the overlord of the New Juaben Traditional Area, had abandoned his people.

The aggrieved chiefs intimated that per the performance of the rites and the invocation of Otumfuo’s Ntamkese, Daasebre Oti Boateng was barred from holding himself as chief both home and abroad, adding that he would breach the Otumfuo’s Ntamkese should he go against their pronouncement.

However moments after the invocation, the Omanhene, who was dressed in his royal regalia, addressed a group of chiefs and journalists to register his displeasure.

The sub-chiefs indicated plans to haul him before the Asantehene last Friday through the Asante Juabenhene, Nana Otuo Sriboe II but this could not materialise because Nana Otuo Sriboe, at the time, was engaged elsewhere.

The Abesimhene told DAILY GUIDE that the Ntamkese is no joke and has dire consequences for those who breached it.

Source Daily Guide Ghana News

Daasebre Oti Boateng is still our Chief