By Laudia Sawer
Tema, April 15, GNA – The Tema Traditional Council (TTC) has expressed dismay at the press statement issued by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on the killing of two men and injuring three others during a final Kplejoo festival procession on Friday.
Nii Armah Soumponu II, the Tema Shipi and Stool Secretary of the Tema Traditional Council, expressed the dismay of the people at a press conference.
Nii Soumponu said the public information was palpably false, and as a traditional council, they had been working tirelessly to tame the youth and convince them to soften their stand on the whole incident because it was very provocative.
He said the community had been celebrating the festival for many decades, even after relocating to their present locality without any incidents, adding that they wrote to all the security agencies in Tema to inform them about the Kplejoo celebration and the processions.
He indicated that the Police, throughout the festival, cooperated with the people, saying, “We observed that Police patrol cars have been coming in and out, but they handle the crowd so mutually that any time they saw the crowd to be so thick, they stopped their car and made sure that the people passed before they drove on.”
Nii Soumponu said although they do not support vandalism, the claim by the GAF that a military vehicle was vandalised could not be verified as there was nothing to show that the car even belonged to the military or that the occupants being military men, “So, in their attempt to drive through the crowd, it will naturally incur their displeasure and they will react.”
Nii Soumponu stressed that even though the natives lost 32 square miles of their land for the building of the harbour and industries, they managed to keep their culture and would continue to celebrate their festival no matter what situation they faced, as that was the only thing left for them as the indigenous people of Tema.
“We gave our land out, but we were never asked to stop celebrating our festivals, so, we will continue to celebrate them. We wrote to all security agencies so that we wouldn’t record any incidents. Why did they come there with live bullets? If we know we are on the right path and somebody comes to provoke us, we will react,” he stated.
He said since the incident occurred, the Police and all other stakeholders had visited the traditional council to confer with them on the issue except the GAF.
Meanwhile, Mr Mohammed Elias, a leader of one of the Asafo groups, and Mr Henry Okoe Oninku, a member of the traditional council, have said that the youth would not take the law into their own hands and fight the military as they have no weapons.
They said they were waiting on the Police to complete their investigations, while they also relied on their gods and ancestors to intercede for them.
GNA