Royal War of Words

The Ga Paramount Stool Dzasetse has reiterated that nobody, to their knowledge, has been enstooled as Ga Mantse. �The Paramount Stool has nor, at any time, installed anyone as Ga Mantse since the demise of our illustrious Ga Mantse, Boni Nii Amugi II, for the Ga State,� Nii Yaote Oto-Ga II, Dzasetse of the Ga Paramount Stool, said yesterday at a press conference in Accra to state his position on the four-year-old chieftaincy dispute. �Anybody parading himself as Ga Mantse is illegitimate and does not have the authority and mandate of the Ga Paramount Stool Dzase which is the only legitimate, customarily mandated and recognised body of kingmakers that enstools a Ga Mantse,� he emphasised. We wish to advise the general public and all state institutions that presently, there is no accredited Ga Mantse on the Royal Stool,� he said. Nii Oto-Ga said any reference or attribution to the position presently to any person �is wrong and flies in the face of the sensibilities of the Ga people.� He said the Ga Paramount Stool Dzase was currently pursuing the illegitimacy of the purported Ga Mantse at the Regional House of Chiefs at Dodowa. �This is because any installation of a Ga Mantse without the initiation, direction, participation and approval of the Paramount Stool is null and void and of no consequence,� he said. Nii Oto-Ga said the Paramount Stool would pursue the issue to its logical conclusion to rectify the wrong being purported against Ga traditional heritage. He said due to the falsehood and the clandestine haste that characterized the purported enstoolment of Dr Joe Blankson as King Tackie-Tawiah III, certain norms were blatantly ignored. �It is pertinent to undergo appropriate traditional rites and education such as grooming, public speaking, comportment, right behaviours and attitude for the occupant of the stool,� he said. Nii Oto-Ga asked King Tackie Tawiah to be circumspective in his desire to be officially recognised by the government saying, �he is so persuaded by his inordinate ambition that he is totally unaware that he is betraying his utter frustration and fatal desperation.� Reacting to the issue raised by the Ga Paramount Stool Dzase, Nii Tetteh Kwei II, rival Dzasetse of Ga Royal Paramount Stool Dzase, which installed King Tackie Tawiah as Ga Mantse, said he (the Ga Mantse) was legitimately installed. He said since the issue of the Ga Mantse�s installation was being challenged by the group at the Regional House of Chiefs at Dodowa, �we will wait for the outcome since we know they are fighting a losing battle to drag the name of the Royal Stool into disrepute.� Nii Tetteh Kwei contended that the Ga Mantse before his installation as tradition required had to go through a series of customary rituals and education. �It took us months to finish with these traditional norms so there is mischief being perpetrated if the facts are being bent to serve the parochial interest of few individuals,� he said. Nii Tetteh Kwei described as absurd another person to purport to have apologised on behalf of somebody he was against. �In any case, the Ga Mantse, in a free speech society has never said anything to put the high office of the President into disrepute,� he said. He said if the speech on the tape was critically analysed, one would realise that the reference of �Standard Seven� graduate advising the President was specifically targeted at an individual at the forefront of the Ga Mantse Chieftaincy dispute. Nii Tackie Tawiah only wanted to draw the President�s attention to people ill advising him on Ga State matters for ulterior motives.