Nana Otuo Serebuor II, Juabenhene, has stated that he has neither enstooled nor destooled any chief at Konongo.
The Juabenhene, who is also the Chairman of the Council of State, was reacting to a petition by Nana Obrane Frimpong, Twafohene of Konongo, and Kwame Atta Kakra, a Member of the Royal Asona Family and a nephew of the late Konongo Chief, to the Judicial Committee of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs.
The petitioners are seeking a declaration among eight other reliefs against Nana Otuo Serebuor II, Juabenhene, and Nana Oppong Agyare, Mr. Kwabena Dapaah Gyasi, and Dr. Albert Awuah Junior as co-respondents.
According to the applicants, their right to be heard was breached, and that the May 31, 2022 meeting at Juaben, presided over by 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.
They also sought a declaration that no person had 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 purported destoolment of the late Konongohene and his sub-chiefs was null and void and of no legal and customary effect.
The petitioners called for an order to set 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.
According to the petitioners, the Juabenhene could not destool posthumously a recognised and gazetted chief, who reigned from May 1981 to January 15, 2022, and should be accorded all the royal rites and protocols as a late chief.
But Nana Otuo Serebour, first respondent, in response to the petition, as filed by K.A. Asante-Krobea Esq. of Asante-Krobea, Sekyere and Associates of Kumasi on behalf of the respondents, said he had not destooled any chief of Konongo.
He also stated that he had not destooled the late Konongohene 30 years ago, as claimed, and explained that the late Konongohene did not recognise him as the Overlord all these 30 years.
The Juabenhene further explained that he did not customarily know the sub-chiefs who called at his palace on May 31, 2022, in the company of the Omanhene of Bekwai, to plead with him to accord royal courtesies for the burial and funeral of the late Konongohene.
Nana Otuo Serebuor also stated that since the late Konongohene did not recognise him (Juabenhene), he could not be part of any arrangements for his burial and funeral celebrations.
With regards to the purported installation of the fourth respondent as the Chief of Konongo under the stool name of Nana Dr. Awuah Abedimsa II on August 22, 2022, the petitioners sought the order of the Judicial Committee of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs to nullify the said installation.
In the petition filed on October 17, 2022 by Augustine Opoku Esq. of Dwumfuor and Dwumfuor Chambers on behalf of the petitioners, they contended that the installation of Dr. Awuah on August 22, 2022 at Juaben in the Ashanti Region was a nullity and wrong, and the purported destoolment of the late Konongohene was arbitrary.
They asked for the process for nomination and installation to be restarted because the installation of Dr. Awuah on August 22, 2022 as Konongohene was not customary.
They claimed without the involvement of the Konongo kingmakers the nomination and installation of Dr. Awuah, the fourth defendant, as Chief of Konongo was a nullity.
But the Juabenhene responded, stating that Nana Dr. Awuah Abedimsa II had been customarily and lawfully enstooled as the Chief of Konongo in accordance with Akan custom and nuances for making a chief.
The respondents have, therefore, stated that the petition in question, as it relates to the Juabenhene, was incompetent.
