CHIEFTAINCY DISPUTES IN BRONG AHAFO INCREASE (MIRROR, PAGE 35, DEC 11, 2010)

From Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah, Sunyani

A TOTAL of 56 chieftaincy cases, made up of 46 petitions and 10 appeals, are currently pending before the Judicial Committee of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs.
This was against 54 recorded cases which comprised of 43 petitions and 11 appeals that were brought before the Committee in December 2009.
 At the beginning of this year, the number of chieftaincy disputes that came before the committee were 63, as a result of seven more petitions and two additional appeals.
However, the Committee was able to dispose of four of the petitions and three appeals, thereby, bringing the final number to 56, which the Committee is making frantic efforts to deal with.
Osahene Kwaku Aterkyi II , the President of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, who disclosed this when he addressed the end of year general meeting of the House in Sunyani, the regional capital, could however, not catalogue the pending cases but mentioned the disposed petitions and appeals.
The disposed petitions are the Bassa Paramount stool, Bouyem-Techiman, Toubodom-Techiman and Tanoso- Techiman, while the settled appeal cases were Nkoranza Gyase, Odomase-Adantia as well as Nkoranza-Krabonso.
Osahene Aterkyi expressed the hope that Nananom would take action on the remaining cases pending so that the number would be drastically reduced in a few months time, saying, ‘‘We have already taken steps to ensure expeditious reduction of pending cases to the barest minimum.”.
He said it was rather regrettable thatfull attendance on hearing days was still not encouraging, and therefore, appealed to the panel members to ensure speedy discharge of the outstanding cases, to save the House from possible embarrassment.
According to the President, the House attempted to settle some of the pending cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism but indicated that most of them failed to yield positive results, adding, ‘‘Nonetheless, we shall pursue this further in the coming year’’.
Osahene Aterkyi, who is also the Omanhene of the Kukuom Traditional Area, pointed out that in the coming year, the house would plan to move into mediation process to resolve serious rifts/misunderstandings, arising in conflict areas to prevent legal tussle between royal families and kingmakers.
He gave the assurance that, in the early part of 2011, he plans to take a tour of the entire region, starting from Amanten through Atebubu to Bassa, Wiase, Dwan to Kadjaji area, to help patch up cracks in royal families/kingmakers that may possibly crystallise into open conflict.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye Marfo, stressed that chieftaincy and land disputes did not augur well for the effective development of the country, pointing out that investors were scared of such conflicts and therefore, urged Nananom to ensure the speedy resolution of all pending cases.