Nii Okaidja titles reinstated

There was wild jubilation and merry making on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 after the Supreme Court of Ghana re-instated all chieftaincy titles of Nii Okaidja III, Gbese Mantse and the Adonten of the Ga State.

A panel of five judges under the chairmanship of Justice Sophia Akuffo quashed an earlier judgment by Justice Charles Quist which restrained Nii Okaidja III from using his titles.

The court subsequently gave assurance that the certified copy of the final judgment on this landmark Gbese chieftaincy case would be made available and formally handed over to counsel for Nii Okaidja III, Ayikoi Otoo, as soon as possible.

It will be recalled that Justice Quist, who is currently on sick leave, in May 2015, restrained Nii Okaidja III from using the chieftaincy titles; “Adonten of the Ga State” and “the third” (III).

Nii Okaidja and his elders and followers considered the Justice Quist’s decision to be strange since that motion was not before his court.

They thought the possible reason for the order was to prevent Nii Okaidja III from celebrating the Ga Homowo festival as Gbese Mantse.

But the five justices including Justice N.S. Gbadegbe, Justice Akoto-Bamfo (Mrs.), Justice Apau and Justice Puama together with Justice Sophia Akuffo grilled Nii Ayi Bonte’s counsel, Adumoa Bossman, on procedures and lack of relevance in the motion he presented before the court, restraining Nii Okaidja from using his chieftaincy titles.

The five eminent judges thus unanimously took the decision to restore the chieftaincy titles of Nii Okaidja III.

This ended the long standing Gbese chieftaincy dispute which has been in existence for the past 35 years.

On January 28,2016, Nii Okaidja III dragged Lawyer Adumoa Bossman before the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Counsel for his “seemingly inability or refusal to abide by the decisions of the courts; whether the highest or the lowest courts or the Chieftaincy Tribunals.”

Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Justice Sophia Akuffo, stated that the committee had no power to prevent Lawyer Adumoa Bossman from bringing up un-ending matters before the courts.

However, she scorned the lawyer for being responsible for the decline of discipline and respect from the youth to elders.

Accordingly, she told Adumoa Bossman in no uncertain terms; “hani Ga adzor” to wit “let there be peace in Accra.”