U/E House of Chiefs has only seven active members

Bolgatanga, Dec. 28, GNA - Only seven out of the 17 paramount chiefs who constitute the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs are active members, the rest being either regents or representatives. This came to light during the end of year get-together of the House held in Bolgatanga on Wednesday. The Vice President of the Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Sigri Bewong, who made the disclosure, lamented that even out of the seven paramount chiefs, five were serving at the National House of Chiefs.

"This explains why the House is composed of a lot committees, which is not the best and which is seriously affecting the performance of the House", he stressed. He pointed out that under the standing orders of the House, if a paramount chief died, the funeral and other customary rites were supposed to be performed within six months and a new paramount chief enskinned at least within two years. He expressed regret that a lot of the paramount areas in the Region whose chiefs had died more than two years ago had not yet replaced them and cited Nankong and Naaga, all in the Region, as examples.

Naba Bewong announced that the House had constituted an Arbitration Committee to look into the problem confronting divisional chiefs who had not been elevated to paramount status by their Traditional Areas, for the necessary corrective measures to be taken. He impressed upon the divisional chiefs in the house to work assiduously in order to convince their paramount chiefs to elevate them.