NUMO OSROAGBO DJANGMAH & ANOR VS NUMO HUAGO DORKUTSO & ANOR
2024
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- SACKEY TORKORNOO, CJ (PRESIDING)
- OWUSU, JSC
- L-JOHNSON JSC
- MENSA-BONSU, JSC
- ACKAH-YENSU, JSC
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Constitutional Law
2024
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Judicial Committee of the National House of Chiefs, confirming that the Loweh Adainya Royal Family is the sole family with the right to install the paramount chief of the Great Ningo Traditional Area. The decision resolved a long-standing dispute by concluding that the previous pronouncements cited by the Appellants were obiter dicta and not binding. The court emphasized the importance of resolving conflicting traditional evidence by recent facts and underscored the principles of stare decisis and res judicata in its judgment.
ACKAH-YENSU, JSC
INTRODUCTION
It is almost two (2) decades since the present conflict surrounding the paramountcy of the Great Ningo Traditional Area was submitted for judicial intervention. This, however, is not the first-time issues surrounding the stool have emerged for determination. The cases of Huago & Others v Djangmah II & Others [1997-98] 1 GLR 300; Huago IV & Others v Djangmah II & Others (1998-99) SCGLR 255 attest to the longevity of the Ningo Paramount Stool conflicts.
The principal interrogatory which confronted the Judicial Committee of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs (JCGARHC), through to the Judicial Committee of the National House of Chiefs (JCNHC), and now, the Supreme Court, is; which family should the Mantse of Ningo hails from?
For ease of reference, the Petitioner/Appellant/Respondent shall be referred to as the “Respondent”, whereas the Respondents/ Respondents/Appellants shall also be referred to as the “Appellants”.
For the Appellants, there are two ruling houses from which the occupant of the Ningo Stool must belong. They are, the Royal Adainya and Loweh Kpono families, whose succession is by rotation. The Respondent contends however, that “the Loweh Adainya Royal Family of Ningo is the sole royal family from which the Mantse of Ningo should hail, and that it is the said Loweh Adainya family which has the sole prerogative of supplying the occupant of the Ningo Stool”.
In a cause or matter affecting chieftaincy, the issue of the appropriate family to enstool a chief is no mean an issue, having found constitutional impetus in defining who a chief is. Article 277 of the Constitution, 1992 defines a chief as a person who, “hailing from the appropriate family and lineage, has been validly nominated, elected or selected and enstooled, enskinned or installed as a chief or queen mother in accordance with the relevant customary law and usage.” A person thus, cannot be validated as a chief under our customary constitutional settings, unless that person is from the appropriate royal family.
Not uncommonly, the Judicial Committee of the relevant Traditional Council, or Houses of Chiefs, and even this apex court, are confronted with situations to determine among competing families, who has the prerogative to nominate or select a person to be enthroned a chief of a traditional society in the Republic. In resolving such impasse, which is often shrouded in a mire of conflicting traditional and ancestral facts, the application