Ningo Priests VindicateS Sam George
Traditional priests of the Ningo Traditional Area have vindicated Samuel Nartey George, parliamentary candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ningo-Prampram, of the chaos that marred the Homowo durbar of the people of the Great Ningo Traditional Area.
The chief priest for the area, Nene Charwe-Wornor said the exhibition of continuous disregard for tradition and disrespect for the traditional priests of the two royal gates of the Great Ningo Traditional Area—Loweh-Adainya and Loweh-Kponor Tsawese of the Huago Wem—by Nene Kanor Atiapah III, resulted in the violence at the durbar.
Nene Kanor Atiapah III is the Acting Paramount Chief and Mankralo of the Ningo Traditional Area and Nene Charwe-Wornor told a section of the press in an interview that the acting Paramount Chief had disregarded the performance of the Djange-Domi customary rite since 2015.
The Djange-Domi rite, the chief priest explained, was a purification rite for the Great Ningo Traditional Area, and it preceded their annual Homowo durbar.
He said Nene Atiapah III knew custom and tradition but because he disrespected and disregarded that, he failed to budget for the rite when the priests called on him for money.
“He fooled us in 2015 when we sent him budget for the customary rite, and so when he wanted to play another fast one on us, we advised him to postpone the durbar slated for September 17, 2016, to the next Saturday so that we could raise our money to perform the purification rite,” Nene Charwe-Wornor indicated.
So that the traditional priests were not blamed for any chaotic incidents should Nene Atiapah III disregard their order and went ahead to hold the durbar, Nene Charwe-Wornor said all the four priests—Nene Larbia, Oyire Wornor, Aryeh Larbia and him—and three concerned citizens, petitioned the Tema Regional Police Command on September 12 to stop the September 17 durbar “or we would meet it with vehement resistance and bloodshed.”
The petition letter was copied to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, Chief of Staff, District Police Commander and District Chief Executive for Ningo-Prampram.
The other recipients were the BNI, IGP, Acting President of the Ningo Traditional Council, Loweh-Kponor Royal House and Loweh-Adainya House.
He said, “We stopped the durbar on September 17 because we realised that all the people we petitioned, like Nene Atiapah III, disrespected our call to stop the organisation and observance of the durbar.”
Nene Charwe-Wornor said the priests were aware of some financial sponsorship both Sylvester Tetteh, New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the constituency, and Samuel George Nartey separately made for some cultural performances “but we ignored them.
“They are our two glamorous political figures and so we did not want them to meddle in our core customs and traditional rites that needed to be performed and obeyed by the acting Paramount Chief.”
Therefore, Nene Charwe-Wornor said the September 17 violence at the Great Ningo durbar should be blamed on Nene Atiapah III and all the recipients of their formal request to stop the holding of the durbar.
Meanwhile, Nene Kanor Atiapah III had held that Samuel George Nartey was behind the disorder, allegation the NDC in Ningo-Prampram Constituency had entreated him to stop.
Constituency Secretary of the NDC Cephas Teye Kweku told ghnewsnow that Nene Atiapah III should direct his anger at the petitioners of the letter of which he, Nene Atiapah III, had a copy.
Meanwhile, the police made three arrests on the day of the violence and the Prampram District Police said investigations were still ongoing.
Story By: Inusa Musah
