Wassa-Fiase Stool case returns to Kumasi High Court

Kumasi, Dec. 15, GNA - The Supreme Court has ordered that the Wassa-Fiase stool case in which Odeneho Akrofa Krukoko II is seeking the restoration of his name and particulars as the paramount chief of Wassa-Fiase Traditional Area, be remitted to the Kumasi High Court for the application for leave of Mandamus to be determined on its merit. The Court noted that the Appeal Court erred by its findings that an order for the deletion and particulars of Osagyefo Kwamena Enimil VI as Paramount Chief of the Area from the Register and the insertion of Odeneho Akrofa's name would constitute a determination of a chieftaincy cause or matter by the court according to section 66 of the Chieftaincy Act, 1971 (Act 370).

The Court, presided over by Mrs Georgina Wood, Justice of the Supreme Court, said it is a settled law that entries made in or deleted from the National Register of Chiefs do not constitute adjudication or determination as to who is a chief or not but rather a purely administrative act.

The Court therefore ordered that the judgement of the Court of Appeal should be set aside and the ruling of the High Court be affirmed. On May 20, 2005, a High Court in Kumasi dismissed a preliminary objection made by the National House of Chiefs that an application filed by Odeneho Akrofa for an order of Mandamus to be struck out for lack of jurisdiction.

Odeheho Akrofa who applied for leave of Mandamus, has asked the House to delete from its register the name of Osagyefo Enimil as Paramount Chief of Wassa Fiaso Traditional Area and reinstate his name and particulars as the substantive Paramount Chief of the Area. The grounds in support of his application were that on April 19, 2002, he was convicted and sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment for contempt of court.

As a result of his imprisonment, Osagyefo Enimil was nominated and enstooled on April 23, 2002 as a Chief of the Area in his stead on the grounds that his conviction and subsequent imprisonment amounted to his customary destoolment. Osagyefo Enimils name was later inserted in the National Register of Chiefs in October 2002.

From October 1, 2002, Odeneho Akrofa began a campaign to have his name reinstated in the Register. His conviction and imprisonment was subsequently quashed and set aside by the Court of Appeal on July 19, 2003.

He therefore appealed to the House to restore his name in the register as the conviction upon which his purported destoolment was based did not constitute an offence and that he had never been destooled.

The National House of Chiefs and Osagyefo Enimil, not satisfied with the judgement by the Court appealed to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the ruling of the High Court. 15 Dec. 06