The expansion of Accra towards Nsawam and Adoagyiri areas has caused an unprecedented upsurge in demand for lands for residential and industrial purposes. This demand has increased the price of especially lands within the Adoagyiri enclave beyond predictable margins.
And it is these highly priced lands that have stirred the Akyem Abuakwa overlord Okyehene Amoatia Ofori Panin to covet lands in Adoagyiri.
On Saturday 19th August, 2023, under the guise of organizing one week celebration of the life of one Kwame Sarkodie, Okyeman Taskforce a known group of thugs who have been seen at all times wielding military grade weapons, selling lands at Adoagyiri and its adjoining towns; attacking the inhabitants who dare attempt to cross their paths with brute force, installed a rival chief with a stool name Barima Adu Korkor at Adoagyiri with the help of armed police men.
This attempt to install a rival chief at Adoagyiri has been the number tactic of the Okyehene Amoatia Ofori Panin over the last seven years with the aim of having a trusted person in position of power in Adoagyiri who would obey his diabolic orders and undertake his dark enterprises of increasing tensions in the said communities.
Leaders of the Akyem Kotoku State even though gathered a last minute intelligence concerning the crude installation event, they wisely refused to oppose the installation in order to avoid bloodshed and secure the peace for the good people of Adoagyiri and its adjoining towns.
The elders of the Kotoku State contended that the installation of a rival chief in Adoagyiri by Akyem Abuakwah is an exercise in futility since Adoagyiri has a legitimately gazetted chief for the past fifteen (15) years in the person of Okoanadwo Afutu Dompreh II thus debunking claim by Akyem Abuakwa traditional council that the incumbent chief is illegitimate because he wasn’t installed by the Akyem Abuakwah.
Background history of Nsawam Adoagyiri
In the year 1860 there was war between Akyem Kotoku and Akyem Abuakwah. During that war the Ankobeahene of Kotoku State Nana Dompreh had a chance to kill Okyehene Atta Buom at the time but he spared his life because both Atta Buom king of Abuakwah and Dompreh belonged to the Asona clan.
This infuriated Agyeman King of Kotoku at the time and was unwilling to forgive Dompreh. Dompreh moved from Kotoku with his subjects and later sought for land from Aburihene of Akuapem who gave him land and there, he founded Nsawam.
Thus contention of Okyehene Amoatia Ofori Panin over Adoagyiri is not supported by any concrete historical accounts known to both British and Ghanaian sources save to say Nana Adukorkor of Adoagyiri temporarily transferred his allegiance to Abuakwah in the 1960s over problems with Nana Frimpong Manso III King of Kotoku.
However, the same Nana Adukorkor later transferred his allegiance to Kotoku when the matters were resolved. Upon his death his burial was organized by his family in conjunction with Kotoku state. Adoagyiri’s current chief Okoanadwo Afutu Dompreh was installed by His Royal Majesty Frimpong Manso IV King of Kotoku.
The basis for the Okyehene’s expansionist agenda is rooted in the desire to increase funds in his treasury from land sales in Adoagyiri and its adjoining towns and is thus weak, flawed and nonsensical.
Jeffery Jones
