OTUMFUO DESTOOLS MIM CHIEF (SPREAD)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

ONE of the chiefs who swore the oath of allegiance to the ‘Golden Stool’ more than 20 years ago, Nana Appiah Kusi Brempong II, has been barred by the Asanteman Council from holding himself as Omanhene of Mim in the Brong Ahafo Region.
In a landmark ruling over the weekend, the Asanteman Council said Nana Appiah Kusi Brempong, who swore the oath of allegiance to the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, was not a descendant of the rightful owners of the stool.
Chaired by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the council established that the uncle of Nana Kusi Brempong, the late Nana Kusi Appiah, who served as Mimhene, was only a secretary to the community, who was given the stool because of the valuable services he rendered to the community at the time.
The claim by Nana Kusi Brempong that he had the right to succeed his late uncle was therefore rejected.
Nana Kusi Brempong, who was contesting the stool with a rival chief, Okofrobour Yaw Agyei II, a professor of aeronautic engineering, in a bitter dispute, expressed his surprise when Otumfuo finally pronounced the ruling of the council last Friday.
The council, however, accepted the genealogy traced by Okofrobour Yaw Agyei. Okofrobour said his ancestors were the first to be sent to Mim as soldiers by the then Akwaboahene. Otumfuo Osei Tutu, therefore, directed the kingmakers to go back and decide finally on Nana Yaw Agyei so that he could swear the oath of allegiance to him at the next council meeting.
By tradition, chiefs who owe allegiance to the Golden Stool are only recognised when they take the ‘Ntamkesie’, the revered Asante oath.
The Queen of the traditional area, Nana Durowaaa, who had supported Nana Kusi Brempong all the while, was also declared a wrongful occupant of the stool after occupying it for about 30 years.
This was after the declaration by a former Asantehene, Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyemang Prempeh II, in 1932 that the Mim stool was created without a queen was upheld.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu says that the decision taken by Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyemang Prempeh still holds.
The two rival chiefs were asked to trace the lineage when the Council realised that it was the surest way of establishing who had the right to claim the stool.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu said by Asante tradition, it was the Akwaboahene, one of the chiefs in the Ashanti Region, who had the right to choose a chief for Mim.
In the substantive matter, the Akwaboahene said he had no hand in the enstoolment of Nana Kusi Brempong.