Court Orders Stay Of Execution In Gbese Case

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, 13 May 2008
THE Court of Appeal has granted an application for stay of execution pending the outcome of an appeal filed by Nii Tetteh Ahinakwa II, leader of a faction in the Gbese chieftaincy dispute.

The application was filed against an Accra High Court’s decision ordering them to vacate the Gbese Palace to make way for the other faction, led by Nii Okaija II, to take over.

The three-member panel, chaired by Justice Jones Dotse said : “we have examined and carefully considered the arguments made and hereby order that the judgement of the High Court of January 21, be stayed pending the determination of the instant appeal”.

The High Court had asked Nii Ahinakwa II and his supporters, sympathisers, family members, agents and privies to vacate the palace by 6 p.m. on the day of the judgement.

It directed the police to assist Nii Okaija III, also known as Bill Annan, to take possession of the Gbese Palace and to ensure and maintain peace and order.

The court, presided over by Justice D.K. Ofosu Quartey had explained that there was no legal justification in placing the first defendant in possession of the palace as the order was made by the Judicial Committee of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs without justi-fiable cause and equally without jurisdiction.

“The invocation, incantation or reference to the first defendant as the person referred to by the panel in the judgement, is a clear fanciful notion. It has no place in reality and in the scheme of Gbese stool affairs,” the court said.

After the judgement, Nii Ahinakwa II filed an appeal and another application for stay of execution pending the appeal.