Chieftaincy Ministry appeals for fund for Judicial C’ttees of House of Chiefs

The Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Kofi Dzamesi, has stated that inadequate funds for the judicial committee of the House of Chiefs is hampering the speedy disposition of chieftaincy cases in the country.

According to him, even though 142 out of the 350 cases inherited in 2017, had been settled, the number of recorded cases kept going up.

“A speedy disposition of cases before the respective judicial committees is most desirable, however, due to some challenges partly legal and lack of funding, there are small numbers of cases still pending,” he said.

Mr Dzamesi who was taking his turn at the Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday said one of the issues confronting his outfit was the settlement of chieftaincy disputes.

He said even though through the Ministry of Finance, his outfit had increased the amount of monies advanced to the judicial committees for dispute settlement, it still remained inadequate, stressing that “However, it be, this has helped in the acceleration of the settlement of chieftaincy matters.”

The Minister said due to the inadequacy of funds, it was important that the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism was adopted by parties in resolving their disputes.

Touching on the church, he said government had no intention of imposing taxes on the activities of churches in the country.

However, he said the processes for the establishment of a Charity Commission was far advanced and would be outdoored soon.

The commission he explained would ensure that the churches focused on their charity activities to enable society receive the full benefits of such activities.

In addition to the commission, he said the Ministry would soon come out with a set of policy guidelines to sanitise activities of the church in the country, stressing that “Our churches must guard against violating the rights of their members.”

By Cliff Ekuful