The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has reacted to a document titled “Agyapadie,” which is currently in circulation and says it contains a total fiction, fabricated to fan hatred against the Ofori Panin household and the Okyeman.
He said the fabricated story has been framed as if it was all part of Ofori Panin Fie’s grand scheme to fleece Ghana and that the document, “containing fabricated, revised and concocted allegations”, was meant to fan the flames of hatred that were first lit against J. B. Danquah.
He explained that the genesis of the document/book, which started in 2016, was a desperate move by some political schemers to pit Asantes against the Akyems.
“The original e-fiction portrays that the Akyems had a plan to make Okyenhene the most powerful king in Ghana, if Akufo-Addo won elections in 2016,” he said.
Addressing a council meeting of the Akyem Abuakwa State on Saturday [July 27, 2024], the Okyenhene said “The schemers claim that the Akyems would do everything to make the Asantehene second to the Okyenhene.
“It made it look as if each and every one helping Akufo-Addo to win would be used and dumped except his family and treated all with contempt as if ours was just a callous family which believed it owned Ghana and Ghana owed it.
“It had us insulting everyone, including Bawumia [Vice President]. But it came out too late just a few weeks before the 2016 elections that were already lost so no one took notice,” he said.
The Okyenhene said the book, which featured his photograph on the cover page, had been coming up prominently anytime elections drew closer, starting from the 2016 elections.
He said the book resurfaced once again in 2019 when those behind it revised their scheme and made it seem as if the whole financial sector cleaning exercise was made to kill all other banks with political heads and for Databank to become the most powerful financial institution.
Then in October 2020, he said the schemers revised the book and renamed it “Agyapadie” because National Democratic Congress (NDC) saw the Agyapa Gold transaction as a major political weapon.
“So, they framed it as if it was all part of Ofori Panin Fie’s grand scheme to fleece the country,” he said.
The Okyenhene pointed out that the son of the Senior Minister, Osafo Maafo, who was being prepared to lead the Agyapa transaction and would have done it had it gone through, was made him part of the scheme.
“They said an innocent banker from Absa who was on the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) board which owned Agyapa was part of our plan to take over Absa.
“She is now at MTN! Of course, nobody bothered to find out how you steal a country’s gold with a company that you float on the London Stock Exchange.
“But it was sexy to make every move seem as if it was all in the grand Kyebi scheme of things to steal from Ghana,” he said.
The Okyenhene said the book, which contained several lies, always had some underlying thread of an Ofori-Atta grand scheme and “that everyone else was but a pawn in our game”.
Such scheme, he said, reignited during President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s ascendancy and revised and released whenever “we are getting closer to general elections”.
“But it is curious that Akufo-Addo is no longer a candidate and yet there is still a determined effort to malign and desecrate our royal household.
“I know for sure that posterity will be much kinder to Akufo-Addo and the contribution of this noble house to the welfare, well being and transformation of our nation state, Ghana,” he said.
Diabolically manufactured scheme
Judging from the record, he asked how true had such “diabolically manufactured scheme” played out beyond spinning events to give them a grand scheme effect.
“Have we tried to elevate Osagyefuo above any other traditional ruler in these eight years? How many visiting world leaders have been directed to Kyebi?
“Which trips of Osagyefuo have been state sponsored?” he said, citing how it had been claimed that “our King enjoyed more prominence before than now.”
Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin also questioned the claims that there were many Akyems in the current government.
“The statistics will show that President Agyekum Kufuor’s cabinet had more Akyems than we have today.
“So where is that grand scheme? Most people from this household have had no direct benefit from government and yet are insulted as if the treasury is in their bedrooms,” he said.
