President Akufo-Addo has been named in a bribery allegation said to involve attempts to use money, houses and contracts to convince a claimant to the Akuapem Chieftaincy to walk away from the throne.
According to the allegation, the President is the chief orchestrator of the alleged state-sponsored bribery attempts and that in furtherance of this agenda, Mr. Akufo-Addo bribed the President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi ll.
Captured in the affidavit of Odehye Kwasi Akuffo who is asking the High Court in Koforidua to jail people involved in the alleged bribery attempt, the cash component of the alleged bribe is quoted as Ghc100,000.
Former Chieftaincy Minister, Kofi Dzamesi is named as Jubilee House’ bribe carrying mule who was used to pass the cash around and dangle it before the eyes of the people that Akufo-Addo wanted to bribe.
A very explosive affidavit, the document Odehye Kwasi Akuffo filed also gives more context to the reason immediate past President of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede XIV.
The Agbogbomefia of Asogli was removed in an orchestration by the Akufo-Addo Jubilee House because he was seen as somebody who would not be malleable to the agenda to ensure that the rightful heir to the Ofori Stool of Akuapem is cast aside for Jubilee House’ preferred person to become Chief.
Per the revelations, Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi is the Jubilee House’s anointed heir to the Akuapem throne even though he is not a native of Akuapem Akropong, let alone a royal.
And he is such a darling boy to Jubilee House that Akufo-Addo himself, allegedly took charge of the agenda to make him Okuapehene by hook or crook, allegedly throwing bribes in the form of cash, houses and contracts at whoever could be bought in the matter.
Odehye Kwasi Akuffo, who claims to be the rightfully installed Okuapehene is asking the Koforidua High Court to sentence his rival and all those in the alleged agenda to use bribes to ensure he becomes King of Akuapem to criminal contempt of court for their actions.
According to his covering affidavit, he Odehye Kwasi Akuffo is the rightfully installed king of Akuapem. However, his kingship is being challenged by Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi whom he cites as 2nd Respondent in the contempt case before the Koforidua High Court.
The Eastern Regional House of Chiefs had heard the case and ruled that a new selection and installment process be conducted by the Okuapehemaa, Nana Afua Nketiaa Obuo ll, and the Asonahene of the traditional area, Nana Kwasi Omenako ll.
However, he appealed the ruling at the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi, Ashanti. It is while the appeal, which is before the Appellate Tribunal of the NHC is pending that attempts are being made to have the same NHC gazette Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi as the Okuapehene.
According to Odehye Kwasi Akuffo’s affidavit, he and the other parties involved filed their written addresses before the Committee on 2nd September 2020. While waiting for judgment from the tribunal,
he says he was approached by former Chieftaincy Affairs Minister, Kofi Dzamesi who informed him that he had been sent by the government to discuss a proposal concerning the Okuapeman stool which was on appeal before the National House of Chiefs.
Dzamesi had said the government had recognized its mistake
in bypassing the Okuapehemaa who has the sole customary responsibility to nominate the would-be Okuapehene and imposed Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi as a Pretender to the Ofori Stool. However, as a face-saving measure, the government wished to prevail on him to abandon the appeal before the Judicial Committee of the National House of Chiefs “subject to a package in cash and kind”
“subsequently on 17th April 2020, I received a telephone call from one Michael Asare Bediako, a special assistant to the Minister of Finance that he had been asked by Government to discuss an appeasement proposal with me in anticipation of the judgment to be delivered by the Judicial Committee of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs scheduled for 30th April 2020, the appeasement being in the form of a cash settlement, housing and contracts in return for me to give up my claim to the Ofori Stool as Okuapehene.
“That again, after the judgment had gone the way the government had orchestrated I received a call from Dzamesi to meet him at Jubilee House following which said meeting he sent me a cash the sum of Ghc100,000.”
He says he informed the Asonahene of the Akuapem traditional area, Nana Kwasi Omenako ll, of the inducement and was advised not to accept it. “Whereupon I telephoned the 3rd Respondent (Dzamesi) to come for the money,’ he wrote.
Allegedly, an angry Kofi Dzamesi asked him to give the money to his friend, one Kofi Apianin, “but added that since I had rejected the Government’s juicy offer the money would be given to the President of the National House of Chiefs to influence him to rescind the decision of the House rejecting the 2nd Respondent’s (Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi)’s application to be gazette.
“That 3rd Respondent (Dzamesi) also informed me that should Nana Akuffo-Addo Dankwa be re-elected he as President would proceed to accord Governmental recognition to the 2nd Respondent come what may”
Two weeks before the 7th December 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, he says that President Akufo-Addo invited him and the Okuapehemaa, to Jubilee House and pleaded with them to lend customary legitimacy to Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi, even though he is only a pretender to the Stool. However, he told the President he is the rightful Okuapehene because he has been installed as such in keeping with the law, custom and tradition.
President Akufo-Addo, he revealed, acknowledged that Government had erred in imposing an imposter on the Akuapem stool but pleaded with the Okuapehemaa to at least allow Odehye Kwadwo Kesse Antwi to be king through the second tenure of Akufo-Addo as President. However, he refused.
After the meeting, Dzamesi called him and informed him that he had been instructed to pass the Ghc100,000 bribe money to the President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi, and that Yaw Gyebi would review a decision by the National House of Chiefs to reject the alleged Pretender to the throne.
“That I am reliably informed that the 4th Respondent (Ogyeahoho) has invited the 1st Respondent and 2nd Respondent to the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, between Monday 25th and Thursday 28th January 2021 concerning the necessary formalities to be gone through,” Odehye Kwasi Akuffo’s affidavit read.
He adds that Kofi Dzamesi would boast to him later that the Akufo-Addo Jubilee House would move Heaven and earth to ensure that the then President of the National House of Chiefs was removed. Yaw Gyebi ll, who is Chief of Sefwi Anhwiaso has since replaced him after a vote that was characterized by allegations of some Ghc75,000 bribe being passed around by Jubilee House.
“That the 3rd Respondent (Dzamesi) boasted to me that the Government would move heaven and earth to remove Togbe Afede as President of the National House of Chiefs to be replaced by one who would sulk up to Government in the Akuapem Chieftaincy Affairs and that was exactly what happened.”
According to the Applicant the Government has also used the Attorney General to intimidate himself and the Asonahene in an attempt to make them abandon the appeal at the National House of Chiefs.