No One Can Stop Aboakyir-Planning Committee

The?2014 Aboakyir Planning Committee has made it clear that this years Celebration of the annual Aboakyir festival will come on as planned and that the?sinister plot by some unscrupulous people of Winneba to stop the celebration will not?materialize.

This was made known at a crowded press conference in Winneba yesterday, addressed by the Chairman of the Committee, ?Mr. Alex Peter Acquah?to react to a publication captioned ?ABOAKYIR FESTIVAL SUSPENDED- Says The Two Asafo Companies? which appeared in the New Independent Newspaper Volume: 3/020., Thursdays, 10^th?- 15^th?Tuesday April, 2014, claiming that the already planned festival had been cancelled.

Mr. Alex Peter Acquah however described the said publication as ?highly deceptive and completely outrageous.?

To diffuse any element of tension associated with the Aboakyir 2014 celebration, Mr. Alex Peter Acquah allays fears and called on Ghanaians particularly the people of Winneba to treat the publication with utmost contempt that it deserves.

According to him, the publication which was put out there by the so-called members of Edwinfo, Apagyafo Asam, Etibafo Asam of the Dentsifo and Tuafo Asafo companies of the Effutu State in the Effutu Municipality is unfounded and completely malicious.

Mr. Acquah also described the publication as a grand calculation to destroy the already peacefully planned Aboakyir festival which was launched on April 1^,?2014 and graced by the full presence of the two Asafo companies in Winneba.

He explained that after the launching and to a ensure sound and peaceful festive occasion the Chairman of the Aboakyir Planning Committee, Alex Peter Acquah represented by vice Neenyi Kojo Beedu (V) and Mr. Ghanney were summoned to the office of the Regional Police Commander, Moses Ninson in Cape Coast on Monday 7^th?April 2014 together with the Tufohen of Winneba.

?At the said meeting, we all resolve never ever to deny the citizenry of the Effutu State their long standing heart desire to celebrate this year?s Aboakyir with oneness and soundness of mind.?

??Again on Tuesday 8^th?April, 2014 at the office of the Effutu Municipal Assembly, the presiding member Very Rev. Eldad Bonney a minister of the Methodist Church, Ghana and the lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba had separate meetings with the personnel present.

??First with the Tufohen of Winneba, and thereafter met with the two Abaatan Kweku Armah-Sekum of Tuafo No.1 and Kweku Baiden of Dentsifo No.2. Also present at the meeting were Divisional Police Commander Supt. Ahmed Issah Yakubu and the Winneba Fire Service Commander.?

At end of the day, Mr. Acquah revealed that the Abaatan as well as the Supis for the two Asafo companies all declared their togetherness to celebrate the festival without any trace of rancor that will mar the beauty of this wonderful festive occasion.

?As if all did not go down well with the Tufohen, the Divisional Police Commander, Supt. Ahmed Issah Yakubu reconvened yet other separate meetings in his office at Swedru on Thursday 10^th?April, 2014. This time the two Abaatan were each accompanied by two other members (making six-member committee) of three elders of Tuafo Asafo company and three elders of Dentsifo Asafo company.?

?? At the end of the meeting held at Swedru, the Divisional Commander of Police, Supt. Almed Issah Yakubu requested from the two Abaatan a copy of the programme of activities for the Aboakyir 2014,? he said.

He could not understand why the two Asafo groups which have openly declared their willingness and readiness to celebrate the 2014 Aboakyir festival in grand style to be planning to stop the celebration.

He however indicated that the two Abaatan and their accompanied Supis disassociated themselves from the said reportage by declaring that nobody had held any meeting or press conference with the two Asafo companies let alone infiltrate their camps to cause mayhem and confusion among the peace-loving people of Winneba.

?Looking at the issues as they unfold, who is spilling milk and who in his own small way is muddying the waters upstream and trying to apportion blame downstream,? he averred.

The chairman for the 2014 Aboakyir Planning Committee reiterated the committee?s position on celebrating this year?s Aboakyir festival and cautioned the media to desist from using their platforms for people whose actions will discredit the work of the Aboakyir 2014 Planning Committee.

He stressed, ?I wish to stress here that you do not in any way grant interviews, press conferences or otherwise to any identifiable or unidentifiable group outside this August Body.?

Mr. Acquah also called on the people of Ghana to treat any material or article coming from such people with the highest contempt.

He cautioned the media to stop the habit of using their good offices to honour any information that is not endorsed by the Aboakyir Planning Committee Chairman and treat any such material as a trash.

Below are activities for the celebration