REPUBLIC v. FREMPONG II & ANOTHER; EX PARTE ABABIO II

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

The application is for an order for certiorari to quash the decision of Nana Frempong Mposo II of Effiduase and the elders of Nifa Divisional Council, purporting to destool the applicant as the Krontihene of Effiduase. The decision complained of is contained in the proceedings of the meeting of the said Nifa Divisional Council held at Effiduase on 20 August 1972.

The brief facts of this case are that until August 1972, the applicant was the recognised Krontihene of Effiduase. On 20 August 1972 Nana Frempong Mposo II, the Effiduasehene (hereinafter referred to as the first respondent) and his elders, constituting themselves as the Nifa Divisional Council, met at the ahenfie to consider certain matters and to take decisions affecting the said division. In the course of their deliberations, an affidavit which was alleged to have been deposed to by the applicant some time ago in connection with a certain arbitration, was read. The said affidavit was not exhibited in the present application. But from the proceedings at the meeting, it appears some parts of that [p.210] affidavit made references to the conduct of the first respondent at the said arbitration. The first respondent, who was then presiding over the said divisional council meeting, became offended by the contents of this affidavit.

However, some of the elders present at the meeting suggested that the affidavit in question should be ignored. Others insisted that matters raised in the affidavit should be gone into. Having eventually decided to discuss the contents of that affidavit, messengers were sent to summon the applicant to appear before the meeting. The messengers later came back to inform the meeting that they saw the applicant and the applicant said he was on his way to hospital for medical treatment.

One of the elders, to be precise, Opanin Gyateng, felt that it was not right to discuss matters affecting the applicant in the applicant's absence. He therefore urged upon the meeting to adjourn the discussion for a week to enable the applicant to be present. This wise suggestion was rejected. The meeting then went into recess and resumed at about 4.25 p.m., when discussion about the applicant's said affidavit was re-opened by the elders. The first respondent, at this juncture, swore what has been described in the proceedings as "the oath of innocence," and then contended that he was innocent of all that had been said about him in the applicant's said affidavit.

On the