News
Institute holiday to celebrate ancestors — Traditionalists urge gov’t
A legal storm is brewing over Ghana’s cultural identity.
Nana Obiri Boahen, a prominent legal practitioner, has vowed to sue the state if a national holiday is not instituted to celebrate the ancestors of the respective traditions in the country.
He insists that the omission is discriminatory, since Christians and Muslims enjoy public holidays while traditional worshippers are denied equal recognition.
“If Parliament will not take the matter up, I will be tempted to go to court,” he declared, stressing that the constitution itself upholds Ghana’s traditions and culture.
Nana Boahen made the call at a spirited programme organised by the National Association of Traditionalists and Ancestral Venerators (NATAV).
He lamented that repeated petitions for a national day have gone unanswered, though he expressed hope that the demand will eventually be met.
The programme was on the theme: “Reclaiming Our Ancestral Foundations through a Public Day: Our Heroes, Identity, Unity and the Future of Ghana.”
Painting a vivid contrast between Ghana’s neglect of its own traditions and the reverence shown abroad, Nana Obiri Boahen cited examples of Ghanaians travelling to Jerusalem to pray at a wall while ignoring pilgrimages to Pusigah, the seat of Naa Gbewa.
He also highlighted what he described as the erasure of cultural memory—students in Ahanta unaware of Badu Bonsu, who was beheaded by the Dutch and whose skull was returned in 2009; names like Obuor being discarded for ‘Peter’ at baptism; and the foundational role of Komfo Anokye in the rise of Asanteman.
He insisted that ancestral worship is not merely ritual but a reclamation of identity and dignity long eroded by colonial influence.
“Black people have become victims of atrocities and centuries of systemic brainwashing, but now we have realised the narratives were wrong,” Nana Yaw WI said, explaining that such gatherings are meant to awaken consciousness.
Shekhem Enen Tehuti Men Ab Bonsu, leader of the Ghana branch of the Ausar Auset Society, urged Africans to study traditional religion, insisting that “the power of the black man lies in the religion,” and stressed the importance of honouring the ancestors.
He argued that European systems discouraged such practices precisely because of their potency.
Baffour Asabere Kogyawoasu Ababio III, High Priest at Manhyia Palace and Patron of NATAV, echoed the call, urging Ghanaians to honour those who laid the foundations of civilisation.
Some of the advocates noted that the matter is not just cultural but constitutional, and that the threat of legal action by Nana Obiri Boahen could inject urgency into a debate that blends law, tradition, and identity.
They observed that if Parliament continues to delay, the courts may soon be asked to decide whether ancestral worship deserves its own day on Ghana’s national calendar.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
The Ghana Police Service has launched a manhunt for Prince Krah, a 30-year-old military officer, in connection with the brutal murder of a couple at Saki, near Tema Golf City.
A GH₵100,000 reward has been offered for any credible information leading to his arrest.The victims, identified as Ebenezer Kwabena Obiri, 45, and Mary Anim, 22, were discovered dead in their chamber-and-hall apartment on May 1, 2026.
According to police reports, both bodies bore multiple machete wounds. Investigators established that the suspect had been cohabiting with the couple prior to the incident.
Police records indicate that Mr. Obiri was last seen alive in the company of Krah on the night of April 30.
Following preliminary investigations, the Kpone Magistrate Court issued a warrant for the suspect’s arrest on May 4.Krah is described as being approximately 5.7 feet tall, dark in complexion, and of stout build.
He was last seen wearing a Lacoste shirt and jeans.Security intelligence suggests that Krah has gone into hiding and may be seeking refuge within the Kakusunanka area or the Kamina Barracks in Tamale.
They have urged the public to exercise caution and report any sightings of the suspect to the nearest police station or via the emergency toll-free lines 191 or 112.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The minority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has called for the immediate release of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Food Buffed Stock Company, NAFCO over what he describe as extra judicial harassment.
In a statement by the minority leader, he noted that “I have become aware of the unwarranted arrest and incarceration of the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company, Abdul-Wahab Hanan Aludiba and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni, by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) yesterday, 5th May, 2026.”
Mr.Afenyo-Markins described the incident as a needless and face-saving arrest adding that “followed one year of arraignment of the two accused persons with 3 others in court on charges whose weakness and frivolity were exposed by defence counsel through objections raised and upheld by the court at the Case Management Conference held in the course of the trial.”
According to him the Attorney-General, in response to the objections raised and in a bid to boost the weak prosecution he had initiated, attempted to introduce fresh witness statements without leave of the court, contrary to the rules governing the conduct of criminal proceedings in the Republic.
He added that when an objection was raised again by defence counsel led by Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame and same was upheld by the court, the Attorney-General’s next move was to withdraw all the charges against the accused persons.
According to him “One would have thought that EOCO would step back, conduct more thorough investigations and understand the matter before deciding whether to charge the accused persons again or not.”
“However, in an impulsive and knee-jerk reaction, EOCO re-arrested Mr. Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife for offences unknown to even his legal team and whisked them off to the EOCO office. Strangely, they have been refused bail and have been kept in custody since yesterday, even though they were on bail granted by the court just before the charges were withdrawn,” he added.
He further noted that Hanan’s lawyers, who were at the offices of EOCO from about 11 am until 8 pm last night, were denied access to him.
This according to the Afenyo-Markin the conduct of EOCO, the Attorney-General and the Government as a whole, in harassing and torturing these innocent citizens of the land in the manner described above, very shameful, reprehensible and most unworthy of a healthy democracy that Ghana has struggled to build the past 33 years.
He therefore added that the law enforcement processes should be deployed to deal with actual wrongdoing in accordance with due process and not utilised as a propagandist machinery for the Government by arresting and detaining leading members of the opposition as a way of purporting to give meaning to the Government’s failed ORAL promise.
“I take note that the Attorney-General held a massive press conference last year, cited the Buffer Stock case as a major example of the ORAL drive, and vilified these same accused persons as having stolen money from the State when he had not even filed any charges against them,” he added.
“EOCO’s move in rearresting the accused persons after charges had been withdrawn (after a whole year of subjecting the accused persons to unnecessary assassination of their character) is clearly a desperate attempt to save the face of the Attorney-General and sustain a false impression of a continuation of the Government’s failed ORAL promise,” he noted.
“The EOCO boss, Raymond Archer, must learn to operate in accordance with due process like his predecessors used to do. That important institution of State must not be turned into a rogue outfit for harassing and torturing innocent citizens extra judicially when the Government becomes frustrated by a failure to prove offences levelled against them in a court of law, as we have seen in the Buffer Stock,” he said.
“I call on EOCO and the Attorney-General to release Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni immediately.This impunity must stop,” he concluded.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
