against UE Regional House of Chiefs
By Samuel Adadi Akapule, Bolgatanga
The Azure one Royal Family of Nangodi Paramounntcy has petitioned against the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs panel Members and their Counsel for ruling in favour of Joseph Azumah Asaga , the enkined Chief of the Nangodi Paramount Traditional area.
They alleged that the panel that was constituted to look into the matter had been biased in their ruling and called on the Presidents of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs to reconstitute Judicial Committee to look into the issue again.
It would be recalled that on 20th November, 2012 the Azure one Royal Family filed a motion on notice to the Regional House of Chief for an interim injunction to restrain Joseph Azumah Asaga from being a Chief for the area.
This prompted the House of Chiefs to constitute a Judicial Committee with its Council to look into the matter and finally came out settling that Joseph Azumah Asaga was legitimately enskined by the Nayire and that the enskinment processes of nomination, election and installation were done through in accordance with the provision of Article 277 of the 1992 constitution and section 57 of Article 759.
In a petition signed by Mr Rex Tii Amore on behalf of the Azure one Royal Family-and copied to the President of the Regional House of Chief, the Regisrar , Upper East Regional House of Chiefs , the Registrar , National House of Chiefs and Panel members including the Media, the members of the Azure one Royal Family insisted that Joseph Azumah Asaga was not the legitimate Chief for the area.
They alleged that the enskined Chief was not a person that hails from the Royal family lineage of the Nangodi Paramount Skin and hence his purported nomination and enskinment as the Paramount Chief of Nangodi was contrary to the customs, practice and usage and therefore null and void and of no legal effect.
In furtherance, the petition stated that since in the beginning of the 18the Century the Azure Royal Family members as customs and tradition demands have been entitled to be nominated and enskinned as Nangodi Paramount Chief.
The Petition described the action of the Judicial Committee who ruled on the matter as bias and indicated that comments made by some of the Members of the Committee during the ruling process demonstrated that they had earlier on pre-judged the case.
“The panel further states that even before the hearing of the application for injunction that since the Respondent was one of them they will not grant the injunction. We are therefore of the firm conviction that we will not get any justice from this panel which had already decided that the Respondent was validly enskined”, it stressed.
The member of the Azure one Royal Family have therefore petitioned the Presidents of the Upper East Regional and the National House of Chiefs to intervene to reconstitute the panel and give it a more credible , fair and unbiased panel members to determine the case.