The Asogli State has been in the news since late last week not so much over its annual Te Za, Yam Festival but about some controversy that has affected it.
The issue relates to how a sitting Member of Parliament's gifts were publicly rejected by the State Council despite he (Kennedy Agyapong) being an official guest.
GhanaWeb looks at three major events in the Asogli State Council - Kennedy Agyapong saga.
Ken Agyapong's gifts rejected:
On Friday, September 9, 2022, a Ghana News Agency report indicated that Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, rejected some gifts presented by Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP, as part of his contribution to the people of the Asogli State who were celebrating the annual Te Za, Yam Festival.
The MP had visited Ho to pay homage to the chiefs and people of the Asogli State.
But the gifts he sent, including drinks, were rejected at the durbar ground. Some sub-chiefs, who served as intermediaries to receive the gift on behalf of Togbe Afede XIV, rejected the gifts and asked the MP to take them away.
A video depicting Mr Agyapong on the durbar grounds had some voices in the background shouting "away".
Official invitation letter pops up
But how did Kennedy Agyapong find himself at the event and in what capacity? This was the question on the minds of many people.
In came, an official invitation letter in respect of Kennedy Agyapong in his capacity as a Member of Parliament.
Under an official letterhead from the Asogli State Council, parts of the letter read: "The Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV, Asogli State Council and the Festival Planning Committee have the pleasure to invite you to witness the Sitting-In State of Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV on Friday September 9 and the climax of the festival which is the Grand Durbar on Saturday, September 10, 2022, at 10:00 am at Jubilee Park, Ho."
The letter signed by the State Council and addressed to "Honourable Kennedy Ohene Agyapong" concluded: "We hope that you will make time out of your tight schedule to celebrate with us."
Asogli State Council apologizes to Kennedy Agyapong
Mr Stephen Tetteh, the Secretary of the Asogli State Council on September 12 rendered an unqualified apology to Mr Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin North, for wrongfully inviting him to the Palace against authority.
“I accept responsibility for the administrative lapse, which resulted in dispatching an invite to the MP,” the statement on the Asogli State Council letterhead read.
This was the latest installment of a raging saga that took off from over the weekend when it was reported that gifts from the MP to the Agbogbomefia, overlord of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XVI, had been rejected.
The statement explained that Mr Agyapong through his representatives requested for an invitation to be part of some programme, which request was not granted by the Council.
He added that the rejection of his request was based on his occasional uncomplimentary effusions and vitriol attacks on the person of Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia, in the media space spanning 2009 to 2018.
Mr Tetteh told the Ghana News Agency the rejection of the MP’s invitation was due to some disparaging comments made against Togbe Afede, as Board Chairman of the National Investment Bank.
He said the invite to Mr Agyapong inadvertently “slipped” through the many others that were sent across the country and was never a trap to disgrace him.
Some anti-Togbe Afede comments cited in the letter were as follows:
a. April 24, 2009
‘Togbe Afede is a shameless opportunist’
b. April 18, 2012
‘I declare war in this country’
c. November 7, 2018
‘Togbe Afede is corrupt, he supervised fraudulent withdrawal of 31 million cedis from NIB’
d. November 18, 2018
‘Togbe Afede is ethnocentric and an NDC stooge, his name can never intimidate me’
e. November 13, 2018
‘Even the President cannot stop me from chasing Togbe Afede out as NIB Board Chairman’
Read the latest letter below:
SARA
Kennedy Agyapong and Togbe Afede