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Another letter filed at the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs by the Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, the Tongraan, challenging the authority of the Supreme Ruler of Mamprugu, the Nayiri, has ruffled feathers at Nalerigu, the control centre of the Mamprugu Kingdom.
The Nayiri, Naa Bohugu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga, installed a retired Management Accountant at the University of Ghana, Bernard Bade Bugre, in 2018 as the Chief of Namoalug, a community in the Talensi District. Then, he wrote to the Tongraan, who also was enskinned by the Nayiri in 2015, to process the gazetting forms of the newly installed chief at the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs so that he could have his name entered into the national register of chiefs. The Nayiri dispatched a copy of that letter also to that House of Chiefs.
The Nayiri’s application was not executed. In what rather came back as a shock to Nalerigu, the Tongraan, Naab Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, registered a petition at the same House of Chiefs against the request the Nayiri had filed for the Chief of Namoalug, Nab Kolsong Na-Laam Nyuurib, to be enrolled as a member of the House. He boldly said the application handed in by the Grand Monarch of Mamprugu had no locus and should be thrown out.
“I write as the President and Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Council in the Upper East Region to inform you that the said application submitted to your House from the Nayiri has no locus and legal authority as far as the Namoalogo Sub-Divisional skin who [claims] to be a Divisional Chief is concerned.
“In addition, the said enskinment which was performed by an elder of the Nayiri is yet to be sorted out between my Traditional Council and the Overlord (Nayiri). Finally, the application for the registration has no basis and procedurally out of place and the application should be dismissed,” the Tongraan said in that letter captioned “Petition against Registration of Supposed New Namoulugu Chief” and written for him by his secretary, Richard Yinbil Sunday.
It is an indictment on the Nayiri— Elders of Mamprugu react to Tongraan’s letter
Absurd. Degrading. Unacceptable. And unimaginable. That is how some elders at Nalerigu have described the petition written by the Tongraan against the application filed by the revered Sovereign of the Mamprugu Kingdom.
“It is an indictment on the Nayiri,” said an elder on Sunday (yesterday), “to challenge the King from whose bosom you draw your authority as a paramount chief.”
Starr News engaged Mba Sakpari, one of the Elders of the Mamprugu Traditional Council who installed the Chief of Namoalug on the instructions of the Nayiri at Nalerigu (as the Nayiri and the Chief of Namoalug traditionally do not meet in person) on the development.
“This is the first time we are witnessing the authority of the Nayiri being challenged in this manner by somebody he (the Nayiri) has made a chief. No chief challenges the Nayiri. Some chiefs misbehaved in times past; we took the chieftaincy title from them. We know what to do.
“Chiefs who misbehave are suspended for six months. We take the hats and the walking sticks from them. If, after the six months, they apologise, we reinstate them. If they fail or refuse to show remorse for the wrongdoing, we appoint their wundana (deputies) to act as caretakers in their stead until the suspended chiefs leave this world. We know what to do,” Mba Sakpari disclosed in a Starr News interview.
The Nayiri’s Second-in-Command, Mba Tarana, remarked with deep concern in an interview with Starr News: “The Tongraan’s case, the way he has handled the Namualugu chieftaincy affairs, with respect to the gazetting, is not the best as far as we are concerned at the palace.”
“A meeting has been scheduled for this week here (Nalerigu) on the matter. Mamprugu is a peaceful kingdom. The Nayiri is a great leader and will, in his wisdom, handle this matter in a way that gives sanity and respect to the authority of the chieftaincy institution,” said one of the elders.
By Edward Adeti, Upper East region, Daily Mail GH
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