The Tema Dzaase has stated that it will not countenance any acts that can generate into chieftaincy dispute in the traditional area stating that Tema currently has no chief after the demise of Nii Adjei Kraku II, its paramount chief in 2020.
The Dzaase is a group under the Traditional Council, which is made up of all heads of the 22 clan houses, and some respected professionals, and other traditional leaders within the community, serving as an advisory body to the Council on major traditional issues.
Nuumo Ashitey Lartey, Chairman of the Dzaase addressing the media at Tema, said instead of retrogressing to the 34 years of chieftaincy conflict the area experienced which robbed the natives of their birth right, “the Dzaase will rather make sure to lift the justifiable anger the various sons of Tema are harbouring for the lack of dedication to improve their welfare by sending them to school and finding jobs for those fortunate to have had the privilege to be educated,” he said.
Nuumo Lartey stressed that Tema was currently united more than any other time and would stop at nothing to stamp its authority on matters that were unhelpful and divisive.
He expressed concern that one Mr Samuel Adjetey Kraku was carrying himself as chief of Tema in the media, even though a chieftaincy conflict he was involved in from 1979 ended in 2013, with Tema getting its paramountcy and being restored as a Traditional Council, which is gazetted and attends meeting at the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs without any hindrance.
He explained that Tema has three ruling houses which provided candidates in turns to be installed as Tema Mantse, namely Nii Adjetey Ashaley (Obour We), Koklootsewe Clan, and Nii Adjetey Ansah We, which is due to provide a candidate to be install as the next Tema Mantse, since it was their turn.
The Dzaase noted, “it is not the turn of Mr Adjetey Kraku to become the Tema Mantse as his grandfather was the last Tema Mantse from the Tetteh Kofi gate of the Koklootsewe Royal Clan.
“The other is the Tetteh Kwabla gate from which Nii Adjei Kraku belonged and was rightfully chosen and installed”.
According to the Dzaase, by the Tema customs, practices and usages, Mr Adjetey Kraku is not the Tema Mantse because he was not in possession of the proverbial black stool, which signifies one’s symbolic authority as the mantse.
“Indeed, he did not even go through any of the customary practices and rites that purify a person to become a Tema Mantse.
“Invariably, his inordinate quest to assume the Tema throne at all cost came to an end when the National House of Chiefs set up a strong fact-finding committee in mid-2000 to look into the Tema chieftaincy affairs and bring finality to it.
“The high powered committee came out with a report to pave the way for the late Tema Mantse to be gazetted and he formally exercised his duties as a recognized member of the chieftaincy fraternity from April 4th, 2013, till his departure to the ancestral home with Tema’s status as a paramountcy restored,” he emphasized.
They intimated that they would not sit idly for the said Adjetey Kraku and his cohorts to put impediments in the forward march of the town in rediscovering itself and demanded its right on account of the acquisition of 33 square miles of its arable land for the Tema town and harbour projects in 1952.
They therefore called on natives, residents and the public to know that Tema currently has no new chief, as the Tema Mantse is gone home and a new Mantse is yet to be enstool.
