By Dennis Peprah
Berekum (B/R), Jan 12, GNA – The Berekum Municipal Security Committee (MuSeC) says it is waiting for a response to a recommendation made to the Berekum Traditional Council concerning an ultimatum to relocate goats from the Berekum Traditional Area.
“We have successfully met the parties involved, made some recommendations and therefore are waiting for a response from the traditional council,” Mr Kofi Adjei, the Berekum Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and the Chairman of the MuSeC, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a telephone interview.
“Even in our last meeting Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister joined and intervened to resolve the matter and we expect a positive response from the traditional council”, he stated, and commended the Council for its readiness to resolve the matter amicably.
Sometime in 2023, the GNA gathered the traditional Council ordered livestock keepers rearing goats to either sell their animals or move them out of the Municipality.
Further checks revealed the order was due to the expected ‘Doteyie’ (pre-burial funeral and interment) of the late Daasebre Dr. Amankona Diawuo II, the Paramount Chief of the Berekum Traditional Area, who died on Friday, June 9, 2023.
The Council had since remained silent, as some of the chiefs contacted by the GNA declined to comment on the matter.
However, a source at the Berekum palace told the GNA the traditional deity (local god) of the Berekum people “forbids goats”, and it was therefore forbidden for anybody to rear goat on the Berekum soil, not only to preserve customs and traditions, but also in order not to attract the wrath of the deity.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the traditional council met somewhere last year and gave all livestock keepers rearing goats to either sell their animals or move them away.
GNA