A High Court at Mampong in the Ashanti Region has dismissed Kumawu paramount chief’s motion seeking to prevent the court from hearing a lawsuit brought against him by some members of his family to delete his name from the register of chiefs.
The court, presided over by Justice Francis Achibonga, declined to agree with Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua that it lacks jurisdiction to hear matters seeking to cancel his gazette notification.
The ruling paves way for the court to inquire the merits of applications brought before it, some of which border on a declaration that the entry of Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua’s name in the national register of chiefs was done through deceit, fraud or falsehood, and malicious fabrication.
Opanin Kwaku Gyekyei, clan head of Odumase gate, and Opanin Kwabena Kodua, an accredited representative of Ananaya gate, all of the Aduana royal family of Kumawu, on March 29, 2017 instituted an action against the paramount chief, the National House of Chiefs and two others, seeking various reliefs from the court.
In a 10-page judgment, Mr. Achibonga said much as it is a trite law that the High Court has no jurisdiction to hear matters affecting chieftaincy, the suit before the court falls outside what section 117(1) a-e of the Court’s Act, Act 459 and section 76 of the Chieftaincy Act, Act 759 respectively define.
According to the judge, the respondents’ case as per their writ of summons and statement of claim are attacking the registration of Barima Sarfo and its effects, and are seeking the court to set aside and prevent him from acting based on the said registration.
The judge argued that, even though the complaints of falsities or inaccuracies on the chieftaincy declaration forms in respect related to a chief, it did not constitute a cause or matter affecting chieftaincy within the meaning of section 66 of Act 370 since the issues do not raise actual challenge to nomination, election, appointment and installation of a person as a chief, or his destoolment.
The court also dismissed application that the writ was abuse of court process, asserting that “a defendant cannot also apply, after entry of conditional appearance, to have the writ set aside on grounds that the action is either frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of the process of the court.”
Background
Angry disputes and violent clashes have continued to characterise the Kumawu paramount stool following the installation of Dr. Emmanuel Yaw Kantanka Sarfo-Asante as chief of the area with the stool name Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua.
In February this year, for example, security was beefed up at Kumawu and its surrounding communities when a royal sect of the Kumawu paramount stool violently clashed with security forces.
The incident, which occurred at Kumawu Bodomase in the Sekyere Kumawu District, left five police officers with gunshot wounds. They were rushed to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi for medical attention.
The victims were said to be among a team of police and military officers deplored to Kumawu Bodomase by the District Security Council (DISEC) to prevent Mr John Akwasi Oduro, telecommunication engineer, from parading as Kumawu paramount chief.
Three embattled chiefs of the Kumawu Traditional Area – Nana Akwasi Baffoe II, Akwamuhene; Nana Sarfo Agyekum II, Aduanahene and Nana Okyere Krapah, Akyempemhene – on Monday, January 12, 2015 installed the 58-year-old man as the new chief of Kumawu, even though the area already had a chief.
Mr. Akwasi Oduro, who was working with the British Royal Mill, Post High Grade, in London, was given a stool name Tweneboa Kodua V to negate 49-year-old Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua’s enstoolment.
The open clash ensued when the rival paramount chief, Tweneboa Kodua V, and his supporters were prevented by security forces from participating in the final burial rites of Nana Okyere Krapah, one of the embattled chiefs that installed him as Kumawuhene.
Nana Okyere Krapa, until his death, was the chief of Bodomase community and a destooled Akyeampemhene of Kumawu, having failed to recognise Barima Sarfo Twereboa Kodua as the legitimate paramount chief of Kumawu Traditional Area.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi