Togbe Ngoryifia Cephas 69-year-old Kosi Bansah heads more than 300,000 people in Hohoe, eastern Ghana, from Ludwigshafen, Germany.
This Ghanaian king who lives there since 1970, has just built a women’s prison in the Ghanaian city.
The German News Agency (DPA) reports that the Ghanaian king has revealed that “men and women of all ages are being detained and that women are victims of sexual assault,” he said.
“It was an unacceptable situation, we had to build cells for women,” he said.
Although Bansah and his wife covered two-thirds of the costs, other prison facilities, painted white with three cells containing bunk beds, came from private contributions.
It was established that women and young ones would be detained in the prison, which received a plaque recognizing the financial contributions of the city of Heiligkreuzsteinach in Baden-Württemberg and Sonja Müller.
King Bansah was appointed successor to the crown in 1987, when his grandfather, the reigning king died.
He was chosen over his father and older brother simply because they were left-handed. The trait is apparently considered unclean and indicative of dishonesty to Hohoe.
The coronation ceremony took place in 1992, but King Bansah decided that his status as king did not require him to return to Africa.
He still lives in Ludwigshafen, near Frankfurt, with his German wife Gabriele, where he runs a car repair garage and also finds time to rule his Hohoe people from south-eastern Ghana, via Skype and phone calls.
According to reports, he remains late even in the evening to rule on tribal disputes and makes sure to visit his kingdom at least six times a year.
