The Chiefs and people of Akyem Abuakwa on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, staged a demonstration against the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.

The demonstration, which took place at Asamankese in the Eastern Region saw some prominent chiefs of the Akyem Abuakwa, Bosome and Kotoku, who expressed their displeasure against a post shared by John Mahama which labelled some members of the government and natives as “Akyem Sakawa” boys.

The demonstrators held numerous placards with inscriptions and red bands on their heads and called on the former President to retract his comments and apologise for insulting the Akyems or else the NDC will be banned from campaigning in the Akyem area and also visiting any chiefs’ Palace.

The Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, in a statement relating to the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal, accused President Nana Akufo-Addo and his kith and kin of forming a family-and-friend cartel to capture the mineral resources of the state via the deal.

He labelled them as “sakawa” and “mafia”, development that has caught the ire of President Akufo-Addo and some members of his government.

At a meeting with the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference at the Jubilee House on Friday, 4 September 2020, President Akufo-Addo not only said he was “very disturbed” by the ethnocentric tagging of his ethnic group but also said, “that is the kind of language we don’t want in our politics.”

“Sometimes, one would hope when things come out, people will comment on them. The comment made by my opponent: ‘Akyem Sakawa’ people, I have not heard any public figure in this country or anybody comment on it.”

“If I was to get up to make a comment about northerners or Gonjas, you can imagine the uproar that will be in the country,” the President bemoaned.

According to him, free speech must not be seen from the perspective of allowing the opposition to go to the government at the least opportunity.

No Apology

Meanwhile, a Deputy General-Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Peter Boamah Otukunor, reacting on the issues said there won’t be any apology for John Mahama’s alleged endorsement of the “Akyem sakawa mafia” comment.