Osu Mantse sued over claim to stool

Some elders of the Osu Traditional Council led by Nii Noi Kpanaku, acting Osu Klottey traditional priest, have filed a case to be heard on 25th January, 2017, accusing the current Osu Mantse, Nii Okwei Kinka VI, of using fraudulent means to acquire the Osu stool.

Speaking at a press conference at Osu in Accra on Monday January 23, the acting Osu traditional priest claimed the current chief, Nii Okwei Kinka, does not come from any of the two royal houses that lay claim to the Osu stool, hence their decision to challenge him.

He also argued that a new chief is installed when a chief dies, is dethroned, or abdicates his stool, but in the case of Nii Okwei Kinka VI neither happened in Osu yet he fraudulently, with the help of certain elders of Osu, installed himself as Osu Mantse.

“It is tradition that the stool must be vacant either by death, abdication, or destoolment that the stool could fall to the next ruling house in waiting… It will interest you to note that while the Osu stool is not vacant and the same has been confirmed by the Supreme Court of Ghana in the matter between the Osu stool versus Unilever Ghana Limited, Nii Nortey Owuo, Osu Mantse, being the intervener, the destooled Mankrado of Osu, Samuel Oquaye Nortei, usurped the traditional authority of the Kinkawe Gyaase to wrongfully enstool, against all norms and customs, a total stranger as Osu Mantse.

The substantive Osu Mantse, Nii Nortey Owuo III, was enstooled in 1984 and gazetted by the National House of Chiefs in 1986. He has not been destooled, neither has he abdicated the Osu stool,” he stated.

Nii Noi Kpanaku alleged that since the installation of Nii Okwei Kinka VI, he has indiscriminately sold Osu lands and used the monies accrued for his personal gain.

He also claimed certain powers and the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs connived with Nii Okwei VI to achieve his ambitions and, therefore, came as no surprise when the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs elected him as its president.