THE REPUBLIC VS NUMO MOSES TETTEY-GA & ORS

ANTHONY OPPONG, JA:

This is an appeal against the decision of the High Court, Tema, delivered on 23rd May, 2019. The decision was in respect of contempt proceedings instituted by the applicants/respondents (hereafter to be referred to simply as respondents) against the respondents/appellants (also to be referred to simply as appellants hereafter).

In the said decision, the High Court, Tema convicted the appellants of contempt of court and sentenced them to a fine of GH₵2,500 each which was to be paid immediately or in default they were to serve a prison term of two (2) months each, among other orders that seem incongruous in contempt proceedings. For instance, the order of the court below restraining 3rd appellant from holding himself out as the wetsoyi (chief) of Lomobiawe is not a proper order to make when the court had not had the benefit of tested evidence in a full scale trial.

Now to the facts: there is a family at Ada to which both respondents and appellants belong. That family is the Lomobiawe clan of Ada. It is not in dispute that there are two main lines of the said family; the paternal line known as the Dame-We and the maternal line known as the Oger-We. The respondents represent the Dame-We and the appellants represent the Oger-We; the paternal line and the maternal line respectively.

Between the two lines of the Lomobiawe clan, there has been long standing struggle as to whether a member of the Dame-We or a member of the Oger-We should be the wetsoyi, the chief. The respondents contend that members of their line, the Dame-We are those eligible to be made the wetsoyi while members of the appellants, the Oger-We are eligible to occupy the asafoatsengua position. The Oger-We however also contends that are also eligible to be wetsoyi but by rotation.

Consequently, according to respondents, the Lomobiawe clan enstooled its first wetsoyi from the Dame-We section of the clan in the person of the late Ayiku Kitcher under the stool name Nene Lomo II and in the same manner the Oger-We section also appointed the first asafoatsengua in the person of the late Asafoatsengua Asiedu Agbloe.

Upon the death of the said Asafoatsengua Agbloe, the Oger-We section unilaterally selected, nominated and installed the present Asafoastengua V without the involvement of the Dame-We section but the Dame-We section fully appreciated and did not challenge the exclusive right of Oger-We section installing the next Asafoastengua, with the view that when it comes to inst