Chieftaincy Tribunal to rule on Nene Attiapah eligibility

Dodowa (GAR), Oct 5, GNA - The Chieftaincy Tribunal of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, will on October 21, give its ruling on a preliminary objection raised by Counsel for Nene Kanor Attiapah III, Mankralo of Ningo Traditional Area.

The eligibility of Nene Attiapah as Acting Paramount Chief is being challenged by two members of the Loweh Kpono Royal House in Ningo. The tribunal fixed the date, after listening to submissions by counsel on both sides about the preliminary application.

On August 6, Nene Asafoatse Odoi III and Nene Asafoatse Adela V filed the petition at the tribunal seeking for a declaration that Nene Attiapah "is not an Acting Paramount Chief, and therefore cannot perform any duties, which by custom are to be performed by the Paramount Chief." They are also praying for an order by the Tribunal to revoke the elevation of any sub chief made by Nene Attiapah, without reference to the members who constitute the Traditional Council.

Lastly, the petitioners are asking the Tribunal to place a perpetual injunction on Nene Attiapah so that he cannot go ahead to perform the final funeral rites of the late Nene Osroagbo Djangmah II, Paramount Chief of Great Ningo Traditional Area who died in 2005. In his submissions before the tribunal, Mr Musah Ahmed, Counsel for Nene Attiapah, submitted that the petitioners have instituted the action against the wrong person because his client is only the Mankralo of Ningo, and has never paraded himself as the Acting Paramount Chief. Counsel submitted that his client was the Acting President of the Great Ningo Traditional Council, and that in law, actions taken by him in the performance of his duties, could be said to be actions of the council.

It was, therefore, counsel's submission that the appropriate forum to sue his client for the performance or non-performance of his functions was the traditional council and not the tribunal. Counsel submitted that Nene Attiapah was not a Paramount Chief, and could therefore not be brought before the Regional House of Chiefs. Counsel submitted that the action of the petitioners was vexatious, frivolous, and abuse of the processes of the tribunal, and therefore prayed the tribunal to dismiss it with punitive cost.

Responding, Major T A Darteh (Rtd), Counsel for the petitioners, submitted that as acting President of the Ningo Traditional Council, Nene Attiapah should be brought before the Regional House of Chiefs if he was found committing offending acts, and not before the traditional council of which he is the Head.

Major Darteh submitted that as Acting President of the Council, Nene Attiapah would empanel members of the body, and so when brought before the same council of which he is the head, would make him a judge in his own court, and this in counsel's view "offends the rule of natural justice."

Counsel submitted that since Section 22 of the Chieftaincy Act clothed the National House of Chiefs with powers in matters affecting chieftaincy, the petition was at the right forum and that "we are properly before the Tribunal."