The people of Tema in the Greater Accra Region, have celebrated their annual Kplejoo festival, with a call on the youth to desist from abusing drugs and engaging in immoral activities.
Nii Adjetey Agbo II, the Mankralo (Chief) and Acting President of the Tema Traditional Council, who gave the advice, said they had written to the various clan houses to continually engage and educate their youth on drug abuse, as it could have dire consequences on their lives.
Nii Agbo said, the council realised that most of the youth abusing drugs in the area were not indigenes and therefore did not attend the weekly clan house meetings, making it a little challenging to reach them with the needed sensitisation.
He also urged residents to engage in good sanitation practices, stating that filth was engulfing Tema Manhean and all must put in their best to make the town clean to prevent the outbreak of diseases.
He commended the youth for participating fully in the Kplejoo festival, lifting the festival to another level, and encouraged them to make it attractive to others.
Giving a brief of the festival, he recounted that the Tema Kplejoo drum was given to the people of Tema through one of its forefathers called Ashitey Lomo, from Yoryitsoshishi at the defunct Meridian Hotel area, which served as their ancestral home.
He added that the drum was used to make their journey on foot from the Meridian Area to their current location lovely and easy when Dr Kwame Nkrumah relocated them to pave the way for the construction of the Tema Port and Tema planned city.
Nii Agbo stated that the Kplejoo period was used for planting towards the Homowo festival and due to that, a ban on drumming and noisemaking was put in place ahead of the Homowo festival.
Thousands of youths forming different groups participated in the Kplejoo, dressed in fancy clothing, sang Kple songs and danced on the streets of Tema Manhean, to show their joy of seeing yet another traditional year.
They use the period through their songs to give praise to the deserving and shame and reprimand those who had committed unacceptable acts during the period of the past traditional year.
GNA
