[ 2012-01-24 ]

Akwamuhene Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, and Queenmother Nana Afrakomah II

Akwamuhene denies GHS20 million compensation allegation
The Omanhene of Akwamu Traditional Area, Odeneho
Kwafo Akoto III has denied allegations that he has
received some GHS 20 million as compensation for
communities who suffered as a result of the
construction of the Akosombo Dam in 1966.

He was reacting to allegations by one Alex Ofei
Agyeman, president of the Akwamu Youth
Association, that the GHS 20 million captured in
the 2010 Auditor General’s report as compensation
paid to Paaso (GHC10 million) and Ahamade (GHC10
million) in the Akwamu Traditional area, have been
received by some five persons secretly on behalf
of the Traditional Council but not used to benefit
the victims.

He mentioned those five as Akwamuhemaa Nana
Afrakuma II, Acting President of the Traditional
Council, Nana Amo Bekai, Abusuapayin Asare Antwi
of the Royal Aboabo Family, the Registrar of the
Traditional Council, Gilbert Larbi, led by the MP
for Asuogyaman Constituency, Mr. Joses Asare
Akoto.

Alex Agyeman has therefore filed a suit against
the Akwamu Traditional Council demanding that the
court make them account for the said moneys.
But Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III told Adom News no such
moneys have been received by the aforementioned
people on behalf of Akwamufie.

He said the Auditor-General’s report captured
moneys paid to Paaso, which is actually Apaaso,
and Ahamade, which is a group of villages in
Akwamu, as having received those moneys, but
nowhere did the report mention Akwamufie.

The Paramount Chief of the Akwamu State said at
the date the money was said to have been paid to
Apaaso and Ahamade, there were disputes in Akwamu
and each community was chasing after the moneys
separately, so the Traditional Council could not
have gone to collect moneys on behalf of everyone.


He said on hearing the allegations in the media,
he set up a four member expert committee of people
who hail from Akwamu and they found documentary
evidence to the effect that the Apaasohene has
collected GHs 400,000 on behalf of Apaaso and
Ahamade, but no evidence of GHS10 million paid to
the two communities or to anyone from Akwamu
Tradional Area.

“As far as I am concerned those moneys have not
been paid at all so we need to find out how it got
captured in the Auditor-General’s report in the
first place,” he said.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Godfred
Akyea-Darkwa, told journalists compensation for
those affected by the construction of Akosombo Dam
were in three categories namely, movement and
settlement; farmlands and flooded areas.

He said the Auditor-General’s Report did not
provide any remarks to say specifically which of
the three the supposed payments were meant for,
adding that nowhere did the report say moneys were
paid to Akwamu.

Mr. Akyea-Darkwah challenged any one with evidence
to the contrary to provide them.

He said the accusers of the Akwamu Traditional
Council are fake and are only trying to destroy
the unity of Akwamu under the new Chief, adding
that the so-called Akwamu Youth Association which
Alex claim to be the president of, does not exist.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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