Asantehene, 2 others as mediators is not right - Lawyer

A prominent legal practitioner based in Accra has criticised the Kufuor administration saying, the President has muddied the waters of the noble Chieftaincy institution by the appointment of the Asantehene, the Yabgon Wura and the Nayiri to mediate in the Yendi crisis.

The legal practitioner, who wants to remain anonymous, told the “The Ghana Palaver” in an interview that, the appointment of the Yagbon Wura and the Nayiri by the government to the mediation team is likely to prejudice their participation in judicial committee of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs.

He said, when the matter comes to the National House of Chiefs, the Asantehene’s position would also be compromised. “This will be when the rivalry referred to by the President in his nationwide broadcast, turns out to be a revival by the government of the Supreme Court-settled Yendi Skin Chieftaincy dispute,” the learned lawyer said.

He said what makes the President’s attempt to compromise these Kings at this early stage of a criminal investigation into the murder of their colleague dangerous, is that the three Kings are the three most powerful Kings of Ghana whose lineage extends several years back in our history.

The lawyer emphasised that their sub-chiefs can not traditionally challenge their judgement in matters of custom, adding “It is regrettable that in an ethnically diverse society like ours, where voting patterns demonstrate ethnicity as a dominant premodial and socio-politico-economic mobilizing instrument, the President should think it prudent to appoint his ethnic King as the lead mediator.”

This perception, the legal man said, does not help matters by the fact that the President chose to meet the Northern Kings together but met his own ethnic King alone. There may be justified reason for this arrangement, but they do not answer the perceptional problem, he said, “Justice must not only be done but must manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done,” he added.