23/02/2026
HYPOCRISY AND SELECTIVE JUSTICE:THE CASE OF SAMPA AND BAWKU
Over the weekend, disturbing scenes unfolded in Sampa. A rival claimant to the stool of the late chief openly proceeded to perform funeral rites in defiance of a clear court injunction. This rival claimant acted even though there is a gazettted chief installed by the Asantehene. The brazenness of this act should have shaken the conscience of every defender of law and order in our country. Yet, what has been most shocking is not merely the defiance of the courts, but the deafening silence from the government that has followed.
As an Asante, I write with deep frustration and reflection. In recent months, we watched as the revered Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, was drawn into the contentious chieftaincy tensions in Bawku. Under the pretext of gazetting and administrative regularisation, recommendations were made that effectively targeted the chief from the Mamprusi side. The machinery of the state moved swiftly then, cloaked in the language of law enforcement and order and arrested him and is now prosecuting him. We were told that the law must prevail. We were told that no individual is above court processes. We were told that chieftaincy disputes must be handled with firmness to preserve national stability. Many of us accepted these assurances in good faith, trusting that justice would be applied evenly, without fear or favour.
But today, events in Sampa raise troubling questions. How can a rival chief without a gazette, acting in open defiance of a court injunction, proceed with such consequential traditional rites under the very nose of the state, and yet no decisive action follows? Where are the urgent security deployments? Where are the swift condemnations? Where is the insistence that the sanctity of the courts must be protected?
It is this inconsistency that pains many of us in Asanteman. When Bawku was the theatre of tension, the authority and moral weight of the Asantehene were invoked and, some would argue, leveraged by government to justify firm action against one side. Yet, when a comparable, if not more blatant, breach of judicial authority occurs in Sampa, silence prevails. No urgency. No visible enforcement. No public resolve.
This breeds a dangerous perception: that justice in Ghana is not blind, but selective; that the full force of the state is mobilised only when it suits particular political narratives; and that some traditional areas are subjected to stricter scrutiny while others enjoy inexplicable restraint.
As an Asante, this is not a comfortable position. Our revered king should never be seen as a tool in the hands of transient political power. The stool of Asanteman represents dignity, neutrality, and the moral conscience of the nation. When the state appears eager to invoke his authority in one conflict, yet passive in another unfolding under the broader canopy of his jurisdiction, it risks eroding both public trust and the sanctity of our traditional leadership.
The deeper question, therefore, is not merely about Sampa or Bawku. It is about the integrity of our national commitment to justice. If defying a court injunction is unacceptable in one region, it must be unacceptable everywhere. If law enforcement is swift in one dispute, it must be equally swift in all others. Anything less sends the message that enforcement is negotiable, contingent, and politically convenient.
At this critical juncture, many of us in Asanteman respectfully but firmly call on our revered king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to speak with moral clarity. If the government continues to look away from the blatant defiance of the courts in Sampa, then justice demands reciprocity of principle. His Majesty should publicly state that failure by the state to enforce the law there will compel him to withdraw his earlier recommendations concerning Bawku and to call for an immediate halt to what many perceive as the persecution, masked as prosecution, of the Mamprusi chief by the Office of the Attorney-General. Only such principled consistency will restore faith that the law is not a weapon of convenience, but a shield of justice for all.
Ghanaians are watching. Asanteman is watching. By Kofi Aboagye
February 23, 2026.
