leaders with a melange of grievances including those unhappy with Justice Van Lare's report on the allocation of seats for the Legislative Assembly in the 1954 elections. Some, including B. F. Kusi – who later stood as the parliamentary candidate and become a formidable member of parliament for opposition before and after independence, – challenged the basis of the electoral seat allocation by population. He famously proclaimed: "Ashanti is a nation … Population does not make a country"? There was also dissatisfaction with the Cocoa Purchasing Company which was accused of using funds to help the CPP during the 1954 elections and disquiet among members of the CPP who failed in the bids to become candidates in the 1954 election and were asked to stand down as independents or face expulsion from the party. This toxic combination of disgruntled rumps hijacked genuine farmers’ grievances over the proposed fixed farm gate prices for cocoa and used it as an excuse to step up opposition to the elected government and in the process, fomented violence and mayhem that claimed the lives of many men, women and children needlessly. The National Liberation Movement (NLM) launched in September 1954 under the leadership for the chief linguist of Ashantehene, Baffour Osei Akoto emerged from this disgruntled group, and the rump of the routed political opposition threw in their lot with them. The Asanteman Council and Asantehene lent their support and the NLM became a rallying nationalist organisation that was not only a critic of the democratically elected government but the leading advocate for Ashanti nationalism. The NLM raided CPP offices in Ashanti and fomented violence indiscriminately and for the first time a group of nationalists in Ashanti decided to break with the consensus on the transitional plans for independence by declaring openly "yeate ye ho". In March 1955, R. J. Vile, the Assistant Secretary at the Colonial Office gave one of the first independent assessments of the NLM after his visit to the Gold Coast. "So little is known about the internal politics of the NLM that it is difficult to know the importance of this core determined people, or the kind of control exercised by the Ashantehene over them. It is, however, clear that they have a fair amount of dynamite at their disposal and presumably can easily obtain fresh supplies by theft from the mines. They contain a number of thugs who are