A fatal misjudgment - Juaben Traditional Council reacts to Kontihene’s petition to National House of Chiefs

The New Juaben Traditional Council has cited Krontihene of New Juaben Traditional Area, Baffuor Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng for violating the customary law and the hierarchy of the Traditional Council establishment over a petition he sent to the National House of Chiefs.

Baffuor Tutu Boateng Nyantakyi is said to have petitioned the National House of Chiefs over a supposed non-existing names of chiefs as well as illegalities and anomalies contained in the list of chiefs presented to the House and its President from the New Juaben Traditional Council.

However, the New Juaben Traditional Council in a release signed by its Acting President, Nana Twumasi Dankwa, has said the Kontihene in his quest failed to exercise essential due diligence and would have found out that “a). the Traditional Council submitted the genuine names of the twelve Divisional Chiefs to the National House of Chiefs and that, b). the Omanhene had already written to the President of the National House of Chiefs to amend the LI of the detected errors with the specific inclusion of the names of the twelve Divisional Chiefs originally submitted but inadvertently excluded from the LI,” had he properly checked with the Traditional Council.

According to the Traditional Council, the Krontihene made fallacious statements such as citing anomalies in the list presented to the National House of Chiefs and its President without providing any shred of evidence to prove his case.

While highlighting that the LI relating to the New Juaben listing suffered some errors in the process of preparation, the New Juaben Traditional Council stated that the error in the list did not emanate from source and may have been as a result of the many institutions the list had to go through and questioned the logic behind the Kontihene's assertion.

“This is completely an illogical assumption given the fact that the original list submitted by the Traditional Council passed through several institutions including the National House of Chiefs, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office and Parliament before it became law. Institutional errors, mostly accidental, sometimes occur and could have happened at any of the aforementioned institutional points of passage. Furthermore, the Traditional Council did not have the option of editing the draft law pertaining to New Juaben. In view of these circumstances, how can any rational person jump to the unsubstantiated conclusion that an error detected in the LI on the New Juaben listing must emanate from the Traditional Council? This is a massive fatal misjudgment on the part of Kontihene, Baafuor Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng,” portions of the release reads.

Baffuor Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng by his actions, according to the New Juaben Traditional Council, has committed to significant breaches by writing directly to the National House of Chiefs.

“By writing directly to the President of the National House of Chiefs without passing through the Omanhene or the Traditional Council, Kontihene has committed two significant breaches. The first breach is his failure to pass the petition through his Overlord in accordance with customary law and usage. The second is by bypassing the Traditional Council, the ultimate traditional leadership power, which has the legal mandate of original jurisdiction over all matters and causes affecting Chieftaincy in the Traditional Area, thus contravening the Chieftaincy Act of 2008.”

The New Juaben Traditional Council by the release has reaffirmed its praise for the Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng “for the bold and courageous fight by the Omanhene leading eventually to the allocation of six Divisional Chiefs in the reconstituted Eastern Regional House of Chiefs” and assured him of their unflinching support.