Tension mounts at Agomeda over chieftaincy dispute
Tension is mounting at Agormeda in the Shai Traditional area following an interlocutory injunction filed at an Accra High Court to declare the installation of Seth Akwetey, resident of Amrahia, near Dodowa as Oyeheko Matse under the name Kofi Ahwah Martey I by the Paramount Chief of the Shai Traditional Area, Nene Odeopeor Martey Kodjoe Ahwah IV as null and void.
The injunction filed by Nene Martey Agidi II and King Tei Ahwah, both kingmakers of Agormeda and Kordiabeon on March 18, 2020, against the Paramount Chief of the Shai Traditional Area, Nene Odeopeor Martey Kodjoe Ahwah IV and Seth Akwetey, want the court to restrain Mr Akwetey, from holding himself as Oyehoko under the stool name Matse Kofi Ahwah Martey I.
Among other reliefs, the Petitioners/Applicants were praying the court to declare that the purported enstoolment and or installation of the second respondent as Oyehoko without the consent, concurrence, knowledge and involvement of the principal kingmakers was wrongful, did not accord with any known custom and or tradition of the Mla Lekpeje Division of Agormeda and Kordiabe and therefore null and void.
The affidavit in support of the motion filled by the petitioners/aApplicants made available to the Ghanaian Times, prayed the court to declare that by custom, usage and practice of the Shai Traditional Council, no chieftaincy position existed within the Mla Lekpeje Division or within the Paramountcy as Oyehoko Matse.
They further urged the court to declare that the first respondent could not nominate, appoint, enstool and or install any person as a chief from the Mla Lekpeje Division which constituted the three gates of the paramountcy without the consent, knowledge and or involvement of the principal kingmakers.
The applicants entreated the court to declare that the second respondent did not hail from Ahwah Wem and therefore not qualified to be installed as chief or Oyehoko Matse of the Mla Lekpeje Division and an order restraining the first respondent from further holding the second respondent as a chief and or Oyehoko Matse.
They argued that the second respondent was purportedly enstooled and or installed from Ahwah Wem by the first respondent as Oyehoko Matse under the stool name Kofi Ahwah Martey I without the consent, knowledge and or involvement of the principal kingmakers of the Mla Lekpeje Division.
The applicants averred that Ahwah Wem was one of the three Royal Gates that constituted the Royal Family (MlaLekpeje Division) that ascended the paramountcy of the Shai Traditional Area and that the other two gates that ascended the paramount stool together with Ahwah Wem in a rotational order were the Aborbi/Apam Wem and the Chartey Wem, all of Agomeda and Kordiabe in the Shai Osudoku Constituency of the Accra Region of the Republic.
They said that the kingmakers of the Mla Lekpeje Division were all three heads of family of Ahwah Wem, King Tei Ahwah (the second respondent), Aborbi/Apam Wem, Numo Kweku Marmah (a witness in the matter), Charetey Wem, Numo Odorkor-Tsu, Nene Martey Agidi III (the first applicant) and Gyase BrentumKuma III.
The applicants said the second applicant and the first respondent both hailed from the Ahwah Wem, which was the gate currently in occupation of the paramount stool and further averred that their culture, custom and practice since time immemorial, those three gates have had the sole privilege, honour and responsibility of providing the Shai Traditional council with the paramount Chief.
They said all chiefs that were nominated, enstooled and or installed were with the consent, concurrence and or the involvement of all the kingmakers of the three royal gates and for about two years now they had observed with much suspicion that the first respondent started holding out the second respondent as a chief within Mla Lekpeji Division which constituted the paramountcy.
BY TIMES REPORTER