January 23, 2023
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
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The Applicants filed this instant Application seeking to have Respondent herein
committed for contempt of court on two main grounds being that he has been prohibited
by a Court of competent jurisdiction from the usage of certain traditional titles but which
he continues to use and style himself as and also interfering and meddling in a court
mandated ADR which came out of this Court’s earlier Orders dated 20/07/2020 in another
matter using said prohibited titles and pretensions of office.
FACTS;
According to the written submissions of Applicants, the Respondent is a stranger to the
Tsiala and Agave Clan whose known lineage started with his grandfather BAABA later
named by the Agave indigenes as Atsu Tokunor because of a hearing impairment. That
according to authentic Agave known history he was a stranger in Agave and the Tsiala
clan, who was hired by one Kutiame Adjahili and sent to Tsialakpo to farm for him
when the Tsiala’s Tsialakpo land at Dzogborve and some creeks were pledged to him
by the Tsiala clan. Baaba settled at the farm with other farm workers and gave birth to
Musah, Daodi and Maahma, the Respondents’ father on the pledged Tsialakpo farm
land. Maahma went back to Nigeria for many years, returning to Ghana somewhere
around 1988-89 with the Respondent to live at Tsialakpo, this time with one Paul
Awuku who became a caretaker chief for the Yelu gate because all the blood
descendants of the originator of the Keteni Stool, ie Yelu Keteni, Akakpo Keteni,
Ebenezer Keteni, Robert Keteni, (Paul Awuku’s master’s children) had all travelled and
settled elsewhere.
The Applicants contends that Respondent because of the sojourn and absence of the real
Yelu Ketenis and because they had lived with Paul Awuku who was a caretaker chief,
without any customary lawful justification began usurping the Yelu Keteni Stool title
under unauthorized and illegal designations like "OFFICE OF YELU KETENI STOOL
TSIALAKPO, YELU KETENI STOOL DZOGBORVE, YELU KETENI STOOL,
AGORTA REGENT", "STOOL FATHER", "STOOL SECRETARY" and even "ACTING
HEAD OF THE TSIALA CLAN" to indulge in several open customary illegal, fraudulent
and unauthorized activities which can be seen on some scandalous letters, and some
social platforms imposing and falsely carrying himself as the custodian or authorized
agent of the Keteni Stool which titles are not true and only meant to deceive the general
public to wit fraud, per EXHS D,E,F,K and EXH T which is a letter from the
AI Generated Summary
Applicants from the Tsiala clan sought to have Sampson Atsu held in contempt based on two pillars: his continued use of prohibited chieftaincy titles despite a Circuit Court default judgment (EXH G), and his interference with a High Court–ordered ADR process (EXH A) meant to establish an Interim Management Committee and an Acting Head/Tator to manage clan affairs. Applicants asserted Respondent’s stranger lineage and fraudulent usurpation of the Yelu Keteni Stool, citing service and maintenance of orders (EXH H, H1, N, P). Respondent denied, asserting legitimate lineage and regency of the Yelu Keteni Divisional Stool, and alleged fraud and lack of jurisdiction. The High Court, applying constitutional authority and Supreme Court precedent on contempt, found Respondent knew of and defied a subsisting order and convicted him, but cautioned and discharged him and advised resort to proper forums to challenge the underlying order.