New Juaben Traditional Council Pulls down Offensive, Dirty Trick Statue

The New Juaben Traditional Council has pulled down a statue it describes as an “offensive and dirty trick” erected at a popular area known as Prince Boateng Roundabout near the Omanhene’s palace in Koforidua of the Eastern Regional Capital.

The Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Council, Daasebre Professor. Emeritus Oti Boateng, who is also the President of the Council of State has described the action by the family of the late “Prince Emmanuel Yao Boateng “as gross disrespect to the Yiadom Hwedie stool and to the Traditional council as a whole after erecting a statue without authorization by the Traditional council.

The Council said the decision to forcibly pull down the statue follows the failure by the children of the late Oheneba Yao Boateng to remove the statue as promised when summoned on February 5, 2021, by the traditional council.

“The Children have also on two different occasions, on 5th March and 19th March 2021 respectively, refused to honour specific requests by the traditional council to attend its meetings on the issue. It has emerged that Oheneba Yao Boateng’s children have produced and widely distributed a video of the offensive statue in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Ghana. The Traditional Council is in possession of a copy of the video which is totally repugnant to the history and sensibilities of the Chiefs and people of New Juaben,” the traditional council said in a statement released.

The traditional council disputed that the late Oheneba Yao Boateng is not a royal from the Yiadom Hwedie family but derived his status from the fact that his late father was Nana Kwaku Boateng I, who reigned as Omanhene of New Juaben from 1913 to1930.

The Council lamented that one would have anticipated, the children of Oheneba Yao Boateng, who erected the statue, to exercise due diligence and circumspection by first, considering their grandfather, Nana Kwaku Boateng I, for the honour and dignity rather than his son and (their father).

"The text carved, Prince Emmanuel Yao Boateng instead of Oheneba Yao Boateng boldly on the said statue is also considered very offensive to the Akan customary practice and usage. From the matrilocal analysis of the Akan kingship structure, Oheneba Yao Boateng, whose mother is not Akan, is also not Akan. The said inscription is therefore a dirty trick that Oheneba Yao Boateng belongs to the Yiadom Hwedie Royal lineage without the pertinent blood of consanguinity “.

The New Juaben Traditional council further stated that the late Oheneba Yao Boateng did not do anything tangibly significant to merit a statue in his honour in such a vantage area.

According to the traditional Council, it had already earmarked the very spot for erecting the statue of Nana Kwaku Boateng I, to commemorate his unique contribution as the Omanhene who built the New Juaben Palace.

William Ofori Akwaboa, Eastern Region