Unpublished Article

By Wiliam Yaw Owusu

Thursaday February 15, 2007
An Accra High Court yesterday ruled that the Grater Accra Regional House of Chiefs at Dodowa, can proceed to hear four petitions filed before it against the purported enstoolment of Dr. Jo Blankson in July as Ga Mantse.

The court, presided over by Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, therefore dismissed an application filed by Dr. Blankson and Nii Akropong, Head of Nii Teiko Tsuru Royal family, to restrain the House of Chiefs from hearing the petitions.

The plaintiffs had sued the house and mentioned the four petitioners, Dr. Ebenezer Nii Armah Tackie, a former lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and three others: Winston Nii Teiko Tackie and two others; Nii Agyemankese IV and two others; as well as Nii Owula Kpakp Blofonyo as the interest parties.

The court awarded ¢10 million cost in favour of the House of Chiefs and another ¢10 million in favour of the four interested parties.

The judge in his ruling pointed out that in matters of chieftaincy such as the case before the court, Dodowa was the proper forum to hear it.

Dr. Blankson and Nii Akropong on November 19, last year, filed the application for an order of certiorari and prohibition to quash the processes initiated by the petitioners before the House of Chiefs on the grounds that they lacked the capacity to institute the action.