THE Paramount chief of Upper Dixcove, Obrempong Hima Dekyi IV, has called on President Akufo-Addo and other stakeholders to intervene and find a lasting solution to a land dispute that has culminated in attacks and counter attacks between the subjects of Upper and Lower Dixcove.
The paramount chief’s call comes a few days after some of his subjects, including his mother, Queen Mother and sub chiefs were subjected to cutlass and machetes attack and later taken captive at the palace of his rival chief, Nana Kwesi Agyemang III of Lower Dixcove.
The mother of the chief had led a retinue of chiefs to Toromu, a disputed land, where they were attacked and taken hostage. It had to take an intervention by the police to free the captives and send them to the hospital. No arrest has been made yet, according to the Police.
Addressing the media after the attack, Obrempong Hima Dekyi praised the Police for their swift intervention.
He said “if you have been to the hospital and see the conditions of the victims-you will appreciate why I am appreciating the police,” adding that if the police had not intervened, a different story could have been told.
Obrempong Hima Dekyi, however, did not hide the fact that Dixcove had been in the news for bad reasons. He said in an era where development should be the focus, it is absurd “to wake up in the morning and hear of attacks here and there,” adding that the Monday incident brings to six the number of attacks and counter attacks that the people of Dixcove have endured, and it is now time to find a lasting solution to the problem.
Obrempong further added that as chiefs, “we owe it a fiduciary role to protect our subjects, get employment for them and bring development and not the other way”.
CAUSE OF INSECURITY
Hima Dekyi did not mince words when he told the media that the root cause of insecurity that has risen between the two paramountcies and their subjects has to do with the ownership of Toromu.
Toromu has been in dispute between the two rival chiefs over who owns the said land.
Hima Dekyi bluntly told the media that though he respects his rival chief, Kwesi Agyemang, but when it comes to stool and chieftaincy, the latter is his ‘small boy’.
This is because his stool was created three centuries before Lower Dixcove and that the rights and interests in land still reside with Upper Dixcove.
Hima Dekyi again told the media that he and his rival chief had travelled the length and breadth of the law courts over land issues and he had won all the cases.
That apart, the Ahanta West Municipal Security Council (MUSEC), at a meeting, also endorsed that the Toromu land belongs to Upper Dixcove.
He further added that out of 48 cluster communities under both Upper and Lower Dixcove, 39 communities were for his rival chief with the remaining nine, including Toromu, falling under him. But his rival still wants to take it.
Meanwhile, the Paramount Chief of Lower Dixcove, Nana Kwesi Agyemang III, is extending an olive branch to his rival paramount chief, Obrempong Hima Dekyi XIV of Upper Dixcove, also in the Western region.
The former wants to find a lasting and peaceful solution to the land dispute that is portraying the two paramountcies in a bad light.
“I have stated several times and I wish to reiterate again that I am ever ready to sit down with the Omanhene of Upper Dixcove to discuss all matters and bring about peace to Dixcove and Ahantaland”.
Addressing a press conference in Takoradi, Nana Kwesi Agyemang did not mince words when he said he was ready to cooperate with Upper Dixcove to ensure peace and that the chiefs and people of Lower Dixcove were also ready for dialogue.
It would be recalled that both Lower and Upper Dixcove have been in the news for bad reason. A dispute over land appears to be the root cause and is threatening the hitherto peaceful co-existence.
Just last week, the mother of Hima Dekyi and other sub chiefs were attacked on the disputed land of Toromu. The timely intervention of the Police led to their rescue after being taken hostage at the palace of Kwesi Agyemang, the Omanhene of Lower Dixcove.
The attack on the life of the mother of Hima Dekyi and other sub chiefs comes exactly a year after Kwesi Agyemang, Omanhene of Lower Dixcove was himself and other sub chiefs attacked and taken hostage at the palace of Hima Dekyi.
In a reaction to a similar press conference held by Hima Dekyi last week, Kwesi Agyemang appeared evasive to concede to the fact that the root cause of the dispute between the two paramountcies has to do with Toromu, a village in the area.
Though he said the dispute over the Toromu land was before the Judicial Committee of the Western Regional House of Chiefs (WRHC), he would, as a matter of respect, not comment on it until it was disposed off.
However, Kwesi Agyemang, in extending an olive branch to his colleague said “please let us get off our high horses. We cannot deceptively preach peace and live a treacherous life that is not worth our sermon. Let us revise our agenda and let’s come and reason together and I hope the peace and development we are all craving for can come and we will finally live in peace”.
He continued, “I urge Hima Dekyi to help in bringing peace to Toromu. We must try as much as possible to desist from acts that could raise tempers”.
Nana Kwesi Agyemang, who has reigned as a chief for over thirty years, continued that in his reign as an Omanhene, he had lived peacefully with Hima Dekyi’s Predecessor (Hima Dekyi XV) and there was not a single day a misunderstanding arose between them.
For this reason, he called on Hima Dekyi to learn from his predecessor by walking in his path to ensure the two traditional areas live in peace.
Kwesi Agyemang, however, used the platform to deny the assertion by his rival Omanhene that Dixcove was in flames as a result of the recent attack on his mother and other sub chiefs. According to him, Dixcove was not on fire and would not be on fire or descend into anarchy.
This is because the citizens are law-abiding and are going on with their normal way of life. Nana Kwesi Agyemang further denied an assertion that Lower Dixcove was a divisional status under Upper Dixcove until 19212, when it attained paramountcy status.
“This is malicious twist of verifiable historical recorded fact. Upper Dixcove and Lower Dixcove both attained their respective paramountcies on the same day in June 1912, by then Secretary of Native Affairs, Sir Francis Crowther’.
The post Combatant Dixcove chiefs sue for peace appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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