REPUBLIC v. AKIM ABUAKWA TRADITIONAL COUNCIL; EX PARTE SAKYIRAA II

JUDGMENT OF APATU-PLANGE AG. J.

This is an application by Nana Akosua Sakyiraa II, queenmother of Akim Abuakwa Traditional Area, praying this court for [p.119] an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the Akim Abuakwa Traditional Council which resulted in her summary destoolment. The application was vehemently opposed by the respondents.

Before proceeding to deal with the very determined and interesting arguments adduced by both sides, it will be necessary to outline in brief the events and circumstances that led to the present application.

On Monday, 2 August 1976, a meeting of all persons whose presence is requisite for the nomination of a new paramount chief for the Akim Abuakwa Traditional Area was convened at Ofori Panin Fie, Kibi, for the purpose of nominating a new Omanhene to succeed the late Nana Ofori-Atta III.

The applicant herein was one of such persons, and was present. In the course of the deliberations it became necessary for the applicant, as custom demands, to nominate the new Okyenhene, and after consultation with her family and the kingmakers she announced that she was nominating one Odehye Asante for election and installation as the now Okyenhene. It turned out that this nomination did not receive the approval and support of some of the kingmakers then present, and they made this known to the queenmother. What followed thereafter has not been made very clear to this court, and I will, therefore, refrain from commenting on it. Suffice it to say that those kingmakers who rejected the queenmother's nominee went on to nominate one Dr. Alex Fredua Agyemang for election and installation as the new Okyenhene. When the queenmother got to know of the nomination of the said Dr. Alex Fredua Agyemang, she swore the great oath of Akim Abuakwa against the said nomination as being irregular. The respondents herein, even though admitting that in fact the queenmother swore the great oath of Akim Abuakwa, contend that she swore the said oath to say that she had no other odehye to nominate apart from Odehye Asante. Be that as it may, the present applicant and some of the kingmakers became dissatisfied with the said nomination of the new Okyenhene as, according to them, it transgressed prevailing and established Akim Abuakwa customary law.

Consequently on the next day, 3 August 1976, the applicant and those kingmakers who opposed the nomination proceeded to Dodowa where they filed a petition at the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs for a decla