Queenmothers Raise Red Flags Over Growing Chieftaincy Tensions In Ga Mashie; Call For Swift Govt Intervention 

The Ga Manyɛmɛi (Queen Mothers) and Asafoianyɛmɛi (Women Warriors) are not happy about what they termed as a growing chieftaincy  tensions in regard to rightful person to ascend the throne of the Ga Paramount Royal Stool in the Ga State.

According to them, the current tensions as a result ongoing chieftaincy dispute between the Nii Boni Tackie Adama Latse gate and King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II faction are seriously breeding insecurity, calling on the state  regulatory security agencies to, immediately step up to neutralise the alarming situation in Ga Mashie.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the quuemothers and women warriors lamented that it appears that the Ga Mashie environment has become volatile and believe strongly that anything can happen at any time if the national security agencies should not step in to bring the situation under control.

They also stresed the need for the key traditional office holders in Ga State to join forces with the national security authorities to resolve this ongoing protracted chieftaincy dispute involving the two feuding parties.

"We are calling on the youths in the Greater Accra Region who had been used to insult our tradtional office rulers on the various social media platforms to bring these habits to end immediately.

"We are tired of confusion in Ga Mashie, and we need to get this unending Ga Mantse chieftaincy dispute resolved once and for all so that we can have a peaceful environment that will foster unity, peace and development.

"We would like to appeal to our youths to desist from sides, not allow themselves to be used by anyone to create confusion and troubles," the Ga Royal queemothers issued the warnings at the press conference in Accra yesterday.

Their press conference comes to fore after King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II has filed an application at the Supreme Court to quash the order directed at the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi to restore Nii Tackie Adama Latse II onto the national register of chiefs as the Ga Mantse.

In a certiorari application, Nii Teiko Tsuru also wants the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld the High Court’s ruling, which first gave the order in November 2021 for Nii Adama Latse’s name to be restored in the register.

The motion, which was filed by counsel for the Ga Mantse, Professor Peter A. Atupare, argues that the High Court judge, Justice Frederick Tetteh, before ordering the restoration of Nii Adama Latse’s name, did not give Nii Tackie Teiko a notice and hearing, thereby violating the rule of natural justice.

The High Court, it said, failed to afford Nii Tackie Teko his constitutional right to be heard in proceedings that directly affected his rights and interests as Ga Mantse.

In addition to this, counsel argued that the Court of Appeal, which had Justices Georgina Mensah-Datsa, Eric Baah and Kwamina Baiden on its panel, committed an error of law when it upheld the ruling of the High Court despite the lower court lacking the jurisdictional basis to reach the said conclusions.

Counsel further argues that the ruling of the High Court in Kumasi, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Kumasi, contravenes the Wednesbury principle and occasions an illogical and irrational outcome of having two persons’ names entered in the National Register of Chiefs as Ga Mantse.

The motion is expected to be moved on Wednesday, July 23, this year.

Meanwhile, the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi has filed an application for a stay of execution pending the Court of Appeal’s determination of their application seeking special leave to appeal the judgment delivered by the second highest court at the Supreme Court.

On June 12 this year, the Court of Appeal ordered the National House of Chiefs to restore Nii Adama Latse onto the national register of chiefs as the Ga Mantse (the Paramount Chief of the Ga State) within 14 days.

That was after it upheld a High Court ruling, which first gave the order in November 2021.

In its unanimous decision, the three-member panel of the second-highest court of the land held that the National House of Chiefs removed Nii Adama Latse’s name from the register without any evidence that he had been validly destooled, a prerequisite for removing a chief’s name from the national register.

“The National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, removed the name of Nii Latse II from the national register without any evidence that he was dead, had been deposed or had abdicated or that an adjudicatory body had ordered the removal of his name.

“The decision of National House of Chiefs, Kumasi was ultra vires, constituted an abuse of power and amounted to a wrong exercise of discretion, thereby constituting an error of law,” the three-member panel of the court ruled when it dismissed the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi’s appeal against the November 2021 High Court decision.

In April 2021, Nii Adama Latse learnt that his name had been expunged from the National Register.

To ascertain his status, counsel for Nii Adama Latse applied for a search with the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, which confirmed that, indeed, his name had been expunged.

He then instructed his lawyer to write a letter of objection, demanding the restoration of his name in the register by April 27, 2021, but the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, refused.

Following this, Nii Adama Latse, whose name was originally part of the register after submitting his enstoolment form from the Ga Traditional Council, filed a motion in a form of a judicial review at the High Court in Kumasi, seeking an order directed at the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, to restore his name onto the register as the Ga Mantse.

This relief was granted by the High Court, but unsatisfied with the ruling, the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, went to the Court of Appeal to challenge the High Court ruling, which ordered the restoration of Nii Adama Latse’s name in the register.

Their main argument was that the High Court was not the proper forum to seek a judicial review; hence, it was not clothed with the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

It is this appeal that has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal, affirming the High Court’s order for Nii Adama Latse’s name to be restored.