Manhyia Palace has denied knowledge of any pull out of either gate in the Dagbon chieftaincy dispute from the peace talk. In a telephone interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday, Monday February 1st, Otumfuo�s Chief of Staff, Fosuaba Akwasi Mensah Banahene, said the palace has not received any official communication to that effect.
He said the last time the leadership of the two gates -Abudu and Andani were at the Manhyia in November, there was no indication of any disagreement. Their leaders have been very cooperative with the committee�, he said, adding that it will come as a surprise to the committee if anything of the sort happened.
Earlier yesterday, the Abudus threatened to withdraw from the ongoing peace talk at the Manhyia palace in Kumasi. Sharing his thought with the Times in Accra yesterday, the president of the Abudu Youth Association- Alhaji Mugisu Sibaway, said their position was based on the fact that their representatives are old and risk losing their lives traveling the long distance from Tamale to Manhyia palace for mediation talks.
Alhaji Sibaway said the health of their mediators are threatening considering the long hours the spend traveling. He said the meeting had become a talk show explaining that rather than finding a solution to the problem the mediators �repeat one thing all the time, with some of the participants accusing one another�.
Another reason for the threat to quit the talks was that the committee was not agreeing to the Abudus request to have the final funeral rites of the Yaa Naa Mohammed Abdulai at the Gbewa Palace. �The committee is asking us to have the funeral outside the palace, but, we can perform the rituals at the palace.
Besides the palace would have to be barricaded by soldiers a practice which is against the tradition of the people� he said. According to him, �the late Yaa Naa Mohammed Abdulai, died over 20 years ago, long before Ya Naa Andani, but to date, the final funeral rites of the late Mohammed Abdulai has not been performed.�
He alleged that �it is only the Andanis that are enjoying the road map for peace. They have had a new palace built for them whereas that the Abudu�s has not been constructed.� Alhaji Sibaway said that �the regent is an Andani and not Abudu, and we feel cheated.� He noted that if the final funeral rite of the late Yaa Naa Abdulai was not performed at the palace, it implied that none of his children could become a chief
Alhaji Sibaway said they (Abudu gate) had subsequently written a letter dated December 29, 2009 to the President and a copy sent to the committee informing them of their position not to take part of the talks again.
The three-member committee of eminent Chiefs, comprising the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, as chairman, the Nayiri Abdulai, Paramount Chief of the Mamprusi Traditional area, and late Yabonwura Doshie I, was formed in January 2003 to mediate in the long-standing dispute which culminated in the murder of Ya-naa Andani in March 2002.
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