Cause of all Osu Stool disputes - Youth Group accuses ‘Mankralo’

A youth group calling itself Patriots Of Osu (POO) have issued a press statement to condemn and blame the Osu ‘Mankralo’ Nii Ako Nortei IV as the sole originator of all the confusion surrounding what they described as the “double installation of Chiefs in Osu.

In a statement signed by the group’s convener NII NOI OSEKAN KPENUKU, It stated without mincing words that “it can only be out of pure greed and parochial selfish interest on the part of the Mankralo to ignore all the laid down procedures and traditional rites in respect of the fact that the sitting Chief Nii Nortey Owuo III is still alive and has not been destooled and yet he (Mankralo) went ahead to install another in blatant disregard of customs and tradition as captured in the Constitution of Ghana… the worse of it is that in Osu the Mankralo is not even a Kingmaker.”

He said, “this blot on the Osu Stool has built some kind of tension within the Osu township over the period and it’s just waiting to explode if appropriate Institutions of State do not intervene to straighten up things by ensuring that the wrongful installation of Nii Kinka Okwei Dowuona VI (known in private life as Kwarteylai Owoo) is quashed.”

Below is segmented portions under various headings for clarifications on their allegations as captured in the statement;

Court Rules On Kinka’s Illegal Installation

Although the Appeal and Apex Courts had declared the OSU Stool as duly occupied the Mankralo of OSU NII AKO NORTEI IV led the illegal installation of Michael Kwarteylai Owoo in 2007 and gave him the name Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI. NII NORTEY OWUO III the substantive OSU MANTSE then took those who did that illegal installation to Court including the Mankralo. The High Court ruled against the Mankralo and his collaborators and the Mankralo was found guilty for contempt and therefore sentenced accordingly on 2nd June, 2008 suit number: BMISC. 749/2007.Michael Kwarteylai Owoo was not charged because this is what he said: “As for the 5th Respondent (Nii Kinka), he explained that he was caught by force and installed Chief. This is what the Honourable Judge had to say concerning Michael Kwartelai Owoo a.k.a Nii Kinka: “It is difficult for me to dismiss his defense laterally or summarily, taking judicial notice of the fact of that mode of installation of Chief as pertains sometimes in our tradition. This application was prosecuted with such vehemence and passion not really supported by evidence.”

Nii Kinka was left off the hook because he claimed innocence. This Ruling has never been challenged because there is no fact to the contrary. So how could he later go and secure a gazette with this same installation? What at all are we doing to Chieftaincy in Ghana?

We hope that the Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs together with the new Executives of the National House of Chiefs, the Ministry of Local Government, the Chieftaincy Ministry, the Office of the President and the Law Enforcement Agencies shall all help bring more sanity into the Chieftaincy Institution especially concerning the mess the Mankralo of OSU have brought, Nii Ako Nortei VI has bedeviled the people of OSU with.

The Gazetting of KINKA

On 7th July 2008, a letter from Nii Okwei Nortey requesting for an official search to be conducted on the Chieftaincy of NII NORTEY OWUO III. Copies of this letter were sent to Honourable Minister of Chieftaincy, the President of the National House of Chiefs, Acting President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, the Acting President of the Ga Traditional Council.

On the 28TH of July, 2008 a reply was sent by the Registrar of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Mr. M.T. Nartey to Nii Okwei Nortey the OSU Secretary stating among other things that NII NORTEY OWUO III has not been destooled and had not been tried by Chieftaincy Tribunal on any destoolable offence.

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Before a Chief is gazetted, once duly installed customarily, the Traditional Council forwards a filled Chieftaincy Declaration(CD) form to the Regional House of Chiefs who after careful study by their Research committee also forwards this CD form to the National House of Chiefs. The CD Form is the primary document for Gazetting a Chief. Gazette in itself does not enstool or destool a Chief.

In the case of Nii Kinka when the Ga Traditional Council realized an anomaly in his forwarded CD form, a withdrawal letter was written dated 11thsigned by the Registrar at the Ga Traditional Council was issued. Knowing very well the facts but this was “ignored” the Regional House of Chiefs due to obvious fraudulent reasons.

Another attempt was made to have the National House of Chiefs stop the Gazetting of Nii Kinka but that one too was initially upheld and later ignored. So, has our Institutions of State become so compromised to foment chaos and anarchy or what? As we speak Nii Kinka has not been installed customarily but only has a strange Gazette which is even being seriously challenged at the Supreme Court and Judgment is slated for 25th January 2017. Nii Kinka has never seen the Ancestral Osu Stool (SEI KWAME) before neither has he ever sat on it before.

Recently the Mankralo single handedly started selling Achimota Lands belonging to the Osu Stool making it seem as if he is in Charge of the Osu Stool just like he did some few years back. There is so much confusion that the Mankralo and his personal Chief Nii Kinka are doing against the legitimate Elders and Kingmakers of Osu whereas the Institutions of State seem to be sitting aloof and this is a very dangerous precedent which must not be allowed to continue.

As he claims he is untouchable forgetting that no one is above the Law and Chieftaincy in Ghana is by Customs and Traditions. In order to fulfil his ambition the Mankralo has started installing new Chiefly positions in order to form his very personal Dzaase whereas there exist a vibrant Osu Blohum Ashante Dzaase.

He as so soon forgotten that it is the Osu Ashante Dzaase that made him the Mankralo of and it is the same Kingmakers who have the power to unmake him.