Five petition against Ga Mantse

Accra, July 6, GNA 96 Five members of the Nii Teiko Tsuru We, one of the royal houses in Accra, have filed a petition at the Judicial Committee of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs against the nomination and election of Dr Jo Blankson as the new Ga Mantse. Dr E. A. Tackie; Ms S.T. Tackie; Mr Kingsley Nii Tieko Tackie; Nii Armah Tackie and Mr George Tackie, said Dr Blankson was installed without the information, knowledge, consent, consultation and agreement of the royal house.

They contended that Dr Blackson, who has the stool name Nii Tackie Tawiah III, was the grandson of Madam Amerley Nkpa, a daughter of King Tackie Tawiah I and therefore a matrilineal descendant of that King. =93The Ga State is a patrilineal society and the system of inheritance and succession in the Ga State especially in Ga Mashie, is patrilineal, particularly for Ga royal families.

=93Therefore, Dr Joe Blackson, who is a matrilineal descendant of King Tackie Tawiah is an illegitimate candidate to be considered and processed as Ga Mantse and does not qualify to be made Ga Mantse.=94 The petition filed on June 16 is against the new King and Nii Akropong III, the head of the Nii Teiko Tsuru We royal house.

The petitioners said although in accordance with customary laws, usages, practice and procedures that governed the enstoolment of the Ga Mantse it was the turn of the Nii Teiko Tsuru We to enstool a Ga Mantse, the selection and enstoolment of King Tackie Tawiah III was null and void.

They are also seeking an order of interim injunction restraining the two respondents, their agents and servants, among others from installing the new King and an interim injunction restraining the King from holding himself out as the Ga Mantse or acting as such or entering the Ga Mantse Palace to do anything as the king.

In a separate letter to the Greater Accra Regional Police Command dated June 23, the solicitors for the petitioners said they had received reliable information that in spite of their petition and motion for an order of interim injunction, Nii Akropong III was planning to introduce the new Ga Mantse to the chiefs, elders and people of Nungua and =93engage in provocative acts=94 which were likely to bring conflict, agitation and breakdown of law and order in Accra as the opponents of the respondents were likely to resist such acts.

The petitioners, therefore, requested the Police to take all necessary steps to ensure that while the petition was pending, the respondents were restrained from engaging in their 93provocative=94 acts. The Ga Traditional Council on Wednesday at a brief ceremony at the Ga Traditional Palace at Kaneshie accepted Dr Blankson as the new Ga Mantse to succeed the late Nii Amugi II. The Royal Ga Dzase under Numo Tete, Nai Wulomo, the spiritual head of the Ga State, installed Dr Blankson, a member of the National Development Planning Commission on June 11, 2006. The ceremony chaired by Nii Kpobi Tete-Tsuru, Acting President of Ga Traditional Council, was witnessed by a crowd, which later followed the new Ga Mantse in a convoy from the Palace to the Ga Traditional Stool House at Ga Mashie. At Ga Mashie, King Tawiah and elders of Ga Stool amidst drumming, dancing and firing of musketry, gracefully walked a distance of about 200 metres to greet the Gas before he was taken into the Stool House. King Tawiah thanked the Traditional Council and Ga Chiefs, who were at the ceremony and called for unity, love and peace among Gas. His coronation would be in October, by which time the late Nii Amugi would have been buried, a member of Teiko Tsuru We Royal House told the Ghana News Agency. 6 July 06