5 elders fined GH₵12, 500 for interfering in chieftaincy affairs

The Sekondi High Court Two, on Wednesday imposed a total fine of GH₵12,500  on five elders for interfering  in chieftaincy affairs  of the Brempong Yaw Ntwea Royal Family, in the Effia-Kwesimintsim municipality of the Western Region.

The convicts,   Ebusua Kyeame  Ekow Tawiah, Maame Yaaba, Joseph Nyantakyi, John Arhin and Mena Nsia, who are not members of the Brempong Yaw Ntwea Royal Family, would in default, serve a three-month jail term.

Their counsel, Mr John Mercer, pleaded with presiding High Court judge, Justice Mrs Hannah Taylor, to temper justice with mercy since the elders had regretted their action.

The five,  were summoned before  the court in 2017 for  installing a new chief, disregarding the decision of the Judicial Committee of  the Western Regional House of Chiefs,  barring  the elders from any such actions, in the affairs of  the Effia stool, on Thursday, April 28, 1974.

The Judicial Committee, included Awulae Kwesi Amakyi III, chairman, Nana Hima Dekyi XIII and Nana Kofi Adianka IV, members with A. P. Pepra, as counsel.

In 1974, a  judgement from  Western Regional House of Chiefs, specified that the five convicts were not members of  the Effia Royal Family, and, therefore, could not install a chief.

The Judicial Committee  ruled that the two separate stools of Effia and Mpintsin could not succeed each other in any way, any attempt by a member of Mpintsin branch to occupy the stool was improper, and vice versa.

The Judicial Committee specified  that the petitioner, Opanyin Kweku Walabai, whose descendants are the five elders, was  from the Mpintsin lineage, and  definitely not part of the Brempong Yaw Ntwaa Family at Effia.

It said Nana Brempong Yaw III and Nana Brempong Yaw 1V were of the Effia lineage of the Brempong Yaw Ntwaa Family and have, therefore, been properly enstooled on the Effia Stool.

However, the five elders defied the House of Chiefs’ ruling and in October, 2017, tried to install John Arhin, a tutor of Ahantaman Senior High School,  as a chief, while Nana Brempong Yaw V, was still the occupant of the stool at Effia and of the Brempong Yaw Ntwea Family.

FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, SEKONDI