A chieftaincy impasse has led to the arrest of three persons for initiating a process to destool Nana Kwasi Ankrah III, the chief of Kitase, on Wednesday, August 3, 2022.
The three, behind bars, were part of some members (including subchiefs) of the Okene family of Kitase who had gathered early morning on Wednesday to slaughter a ram amidst gunshots to announce the alleged destoolment of Nana Kwasi Ankrah over alleged gross “disobedience and misconduct.”
Nana Kwasi Ankrah has been chief of Kiatase for the past 14 years.
The Abakomahene of Kitase, Nana Kwadwo Gyimah, in an interview, stated that their chief had been involved in some misconduct and had been slapped with over 18 charges.
He indicated that when the family invited Nana Kwasi Ankrah to a sitting to deliberate on the misconduct, the charges, and the way forward, he ignored all the invitations, hence their decision to initiate the process to destool him.
However, just a few hours after the said destoolment exercise, GhanaWeb gathered that the chief, Nana Kwasi Ankeah, and some of his subchiefs lodged a report at the police station and followed the police to effect the arrest of the persons involved.
According to information, even though most of them took to their heels, the three were unlucky and fell into the grips of the police officers.
A source from the Aburi District Police command confirmed the arrest to GhanaWeb’s Regional Correspondent, McAnthony Dagyenga.
GhanaWeb approached the queen mother of Kitase, Nana Korkor Ntim II, who has been on the throne for over 47 years to ascertain the actual process of destooling a chief in Kitase.
However, the queen showed strong support for the destoolment action by the Okene family.
Nana Korkor Ntim told GhanaWeb, “Oh, but the chief doesn’t regard me as queen. So, if they have destooled him – it is elders who made me queen – what can I say?
“For me, it doesn’t concern me. The elders told me they had invited him on three occasions to a meeting but he refused to honour them.
“If you refuse to heed to your elders, there’s nothing I can do about it. If he was close to me, I would have advised him about his actions but he does not regard me.
“If you undermine your elders, that’s what will befall you,” Nana Korkor Ntim expressed.
GhanaWeb later met Nana Kwasi Ankrah who described the said family members as “conspirators who need to be jailed”.
“As a matter of fact, those people are my subchiefs. But because of their behaviour, mberewatia and my chiefs, we dismissed them. We had them resign and they left us. Since then they have formed (to do) a coup d’etat…,” he said.
Nana Kwasi Ankrah said he had done nothing wrong except that he prevented the “conspirators” from allegedly selling Kitase lands and therefore had chosen to revolt against him.
Meanwhile, the Aburi District Police command told GhanaWeb that they were on top of affairs and would keep ensuring that peace remained at Kitase.