Offinso Benkumhene destooled

Enoch Darfah Frimpong Jun - 20 - 2013 , 08:53

The Benkumhene of the Offinso Traditional Area in the Ashanti Region, Nana Osei Boateng Yentumi, has suffered the ultimate punishment of destoolment for suggesting that chiefs should be made to retire at 70.

The chief, who had been suspended by the Offinso Traditional Council on May 28, 2013, was last Tuesday finally destooled by the elders of the Offinso-Obuasi Stool where he doubled as the chief.

Besides being found guilty for the statement he made, the Benkumhene was also found to have committed other destoolable offences, including fighting in public and allocating lands in the area without the consent of the Offinsohene, Nana Wiafe Akenten III.

The decision of the elders of the Offinso-Obuasi Stool was arrived at after the Benkumhene had, on three different occasions, failed to appear before the Offinso Traditional Council during the period of his suspension, with the excuse that he was hospitalised.

On behalf of the Obuasi community, the elders slaughtered a sheep to signify the destoolment of the chief.

Meanwhile, the council had earlier apologised to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the President of the National House of Chiefs (NHC), Wulugu Naba Pugansoa Naa Prof John S. Nabila, over “the discourteous and unsavoury pronouncements” made by the Benkumhene that chiefs should be made to retire at 70.

Nana Yentumi had also advocated that the chieftaincy institution must be purged and do away with chiefs who were 70 and above and that chiefs who had attained 70 and above must be made to retire and barred from being installed as chiefs.

He had made the suggestion on the premise that chiefs aged 70 and above had lost their memories and could not think properly, a situation which called for new blood to be injected into the institution.