The Judicial Committee of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs has been petitioned over the enstoolment of Dr. Albert Awuah Jnr, as the new Konongohene, under the stool name of Nana Dr. Awuah Abedimsa II.
The former Coordinator of the World Bank initiated Urban IV project was enstooled the new chief of Konongo, following the demise of Nana Batafo Akyeampong Nti II, the Konongohene, thus rendering the Asonastool of Konongo vacant, since January 15, 2022.
Nana Otuo Serebuor II, Juabenhene, Nana Oppong Agyare and Mr Kwabena Dapaah Gyasi, have been named as the Co-respondents in the matter before the Judicial Committee.
The petition filed on October 17, 2022 by Augustine Opoku, Esq of Dwumfuor and Dwumfuor Chambers, on behalf of Nana Obrane Frimpong,Twafohene of Konongo and Kwame Atta Kakra, a member of the royal Asona family and a nephew of the late chief, contend that the installation ofDr. Awuah (the fourth Respondent) on August 22, 2022 at Juaben in Ashanti is a nullity and wrong.
The Petitioners are seeking eight reliefs, including a declaration that the rights of the applicants to be heard was breached and that the May 31, 2022 meeting at Juaben, presided over by the Juabenhene, Nana Otuo Serebuor, was not the appropriate legal forum to determine matters
affecting the status of chiefs in the Juaben Traditional Council, under the 1992 Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act.
Other reliefs or remedies being sought by the applicants are a declaration that no person has the jurisdiction and authority to make destoolment charges against a deceased chief, who was never charged or tried in his lifetime; a declaration that the purporteddestoolment of the late Konongohene and his sub-chiefs is null and void, and of no legal and customary effect.
The Applicants are also seeking an order setting aside the unlawful act of the declaration of destoolment of the deceased, Nana Batafo Acheampong Nti II, and his sub chiefs and the
consequential orders.
They also want the Judicial Committee to prohibit the Respondents and their agents form usurping the traditional functions of the Konongo sub-chiefs and interfering with the burial and funeral rites of the late chief and a further order to restraining the Juabenhene from interfering with the funeral celebration of the late Konongohene.
Nana Obrane Frimpong, Twafohene of Konongo and Kwame Atta Kakra, also sought a declaration that without the involvement of the Konongo kingmakers, the nomination and installation of the fourth respondentas, the chief of Konongo is a nullity and that a proper process has to be restarted.
The Applicants, per their 10-page petition argued that the Judicial Committee of the Juaben Traditional Council, properly constituted, is the only appropriate legal body to hear, adjudicate and determine matters affecting chieftaincy within the Juaben Council and the 1992 constitution and the Chieftaincy Act and Regulations and not a chief sitting in his palace.
They said the Juabenhene could, therefore, not destool posthumously are cognized and gazetted chief who reigned from May 1981 to January 15, 2022 and should be accorded all the royal rites and protocols of a late chief.
Explaining their position further, the Applicants reacted to the argument by the Juabenhene that he litigated with the late Konongohene describing it as untenable because from 1907 to 1954 and again in 2009, there has been over six cases in court, initiated by successive chiefs of Juaben from Nana Kofi Boaten to Nana Otuo Serebour II against the Konongo stool, but in all those cases the Juaben stool lost.
They explained that all the causes of the said litigation have been due to the claim by the Juaben stool and its attempt to expropriate Konongo Stool lands and mining royalties through various surrogate sand attempts to totally humiliate Konongo Chiefs, who they claim to be their chattel that they bought for €30 (predawn) from a certain Oyokohene in the early part of the 18th century, which claim is disputed because it is not verified as found at page 179 in the book “Rattrays Ashanti Laws and Constitution”, as told by the Juaben chiefs without any research or cross checking.
The Applicants further explained that the late chief was also sued by the Juabenhene at the Ashanti Regional House of Chief in the year 2004 as chief of Konongo and swore an affidavit to that effect, which caserun through to the National House of Chiefs on the installation of the
Konongo Queen mother and also litigated with him over Konongo stool land leases and royalties, which cases brought bad blood between the two chiefs.
According to the Twafohene of Konongo and his Co-applicant, some of those suits are still pending in court and that the Juabenhene is just using his authority to punish and humiliate the late chief, even in death, for resisting his attempts to allegedly sell Konongo stoollands without his consent and sign Konongo leases Acts, frowned upon by the High Court, which ruling was that the Overlord cannot sell or sign Konongo leases that had not first been signed by a Konongo chief.
He said based on the Supreme Court ruling in BOAMPONG vs. ABOAGYE AND
OTHERS [1981] GLR 927-943 that Juaben Stool cannot destool a KonongoChief in Juaben and that it is only the Konongo Kingmakers who candestool a Chief at Konongo, and that the events at Juaben on May 31,2022 was a nullity and an attempt through the backdoor to reverse trite customary traditions, usages and judicial decisions.
Following the above contentions, the Petitioners assert that Nana Batafo Akyeampong Nti II died as chief of Konongo and should be laid to rest as a chief, with all the royal courtesies and protocols as supported by previous decisions by Asanteman Council and the Courts, that a chief or sub-chief cannot be destooled if they have not been found guilty of any wrong doing.
The Applicants contended that even though he is the paramount chief of the traditional council, the Juabenhene sitting in his palace is not clothed with the authority of a judicial committee of a traditional council, which processes and proceedings are regulated by law and the rules of natural justice, adding that being the chair of the Council of State did not grant him the right to deviate from statutory and customary law.
They also referred to the ruling of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II in the case of Ohenenana Akwasi Prempeh versus Nana Juabenhene held at Manhyia Palace by the Asanteman Council on April 23, 2012.
Which said in part that “the authority that a chief is nominated and installed in Juaso, swears his oath of allegiance to his subjects in Juaso, before being sent to Juaben to swear his oath to Juabenhene is the case and not vice versa,” for which reason BarimaSafrotwie Sarpong II’s installation as chief of Juaso was nullified.
The Petitioners stated that the funeral of the late chief of Konongo has since stalled, as the Petitioners and the Konongo Asona Royals and family have no access to the palace to conduct the funeral of the late chief as required by customary practice and usage, because the palace has been locked up by the respondents.
