‘Beware of chieftaincy contractors’

The President of the Brong-Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, Pimampim Yaw Kagbrese V, has admonished chiefs and kingmakers in the region to resist monetary influence by ‘chieftaincy contractors’ in the performance of their traditionally assigned duties.

The call, when heeded, he noted, would help to sustain the chieftaincy institution and prevent the usual disputes associated with the traditional office, thereby ensuring sanity all the time.

Pimampim Yaw Kagbrese, who doubles as Yejihene, made these remarks during a familiarization tour of some Traditional and Divisional Councils in the region.

The tour aimed at interacting with the various councils to find out their challenges and to help strategize to resolve them.

The exercise, which started in stages from December 2013, was in line with activities outlined by the Yejihene when took up the mantle of leadership of the Regional House of Chiefs.

In a press release copied to DAILY GUIDE, Pimampim Yaw Kagbrese V said most of the challenges that came up during the interactions bordered on the rampant chieftaincy disputes which usually emanated from the process of destoolment and enstoolment of chiefs saying, “These disputes are mostly blamed on the kingmakers, queen mothers/abusuapanin and the youth.”

He therefore advised Nananom to always endeavour to earn the respect of their subjects and also learn to tolerate one another.

He stressed the need for all traditional rulers to have their names entered into the National Register of Chiefs. This, he noted, would enable them to perform the statutory functions imposed on them by the 1992 Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act of 2008.

This was after some of the traditional councils had expressed concern about the emergence of acting presidents who they claimed had acted for long periods thereby crippling the registration of the names of some Nananom in the Register.

On the lack of staff at the various traditional councils, the President of the House assured Nananom that the sector ministry was working on it.

Touching on the delays in resolving chieftaincy disputes that are brought before the House, Pimampim Kagbrese attributed part of the problem to a lack of legal counsels for the House, failure of litigants’ lawyers to attend sittings regularly, insufficient funds to cater for the traditional rulers’ expenses during sittings and the failure of litigants to embrace the Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism in settling disputes.