‘Apologize for calling Otumfuo liar’ – Asante Youth to Mahama

The Asante Youth Association has expressed disappointed in former President John Mahama as well as the National Democratic Congress attempts to downplay the relevance of the Asantehene in the country’s democratic process.

According to the group, actions by the National Democratic Congress and Mahama can best be described as attempts to use their ‘political gains’ to destroy the Asante Kingdom.

The group’s comments comes after Julius Debrah, in a statement responding to Otumfuo said “I state without equivocation that the decision to concede and congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo even before the official results were declared was taken by President Mahama himself without any persuasion from any quarter.

“As former Chief of Staff to President Mahama, I was associated closely with all the pre, during and post 2016 poll events,”.

He added that “it is public knowledge that President Mahama willingly announced his decision to accept the outcome of the 2016 elections and congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo even before the official results were formally declared by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.”

The Director of Operations for the Association, Nana Oppong Boadu however in an interview on Citi Fm called on former President John Mahama to dissociate himself from the press statement released by Mr. Julius Debarah.

“We are giving John Mahama 48 hours to come and retract that he didn’t instruct Julius Debrah to issue that statement. Other than that we are going to make the Ashanti Kingdom a hostile place for himself and his party,” he said.

Background

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II in a speech delivery at the UN General Assembly over the weekend on using traditional methods and culture to engender peace in the Ashanti Region and Ghana said the Manhyia Palace intervened to persuade the losing candidate in the 2016 general elections to accept defeat.

He insists the intervention by the Palace played a pivotal role in safeguarding the peace and tranquility of the country.

“At the conclusion of the last presidential and parliamentary elections, the country [Ghana] stood on the edge of disaster. The UN representatives and the diplomatic community were aghast, alarmed that Ghana was going to slip down the slope of electoral violence.

“Fortunately, the moral authority of the palace was at hand. We were able to intervene to persuade the losing candidate to accept his fate and fly both candidates for a quiet encounter to pave the way for a handover,” he said.