High Court orders Oguaamanhen's name be expunged from Register

A Cape Coast High Court has ordered the National House of Chiefs (NHC) to expunge the name of Osabarima Kwesi Atta the second, Paramount Chief of the Oguaa Traditional Area, from the National Register of Chiefs (NRC), on grounds of fraud.

Cape Coast, July 9, GNA - A Cape Coast High Court has ordered the National House of Chiefs (NHC) to expunge the name of Osabarima Kwesi Atta the second, Paramount Chief of the Oguaa Traditional Area, from the National Register of Chiefs (NRC), on grounds of fraud.

This followed an application filed at the court by four principal members of the Royal Ebiradze Royal Family of Cape Coast, led by Opanyin Kofi Amonoo, challenging the registration of the Paramount Chief, known in private life as J. S Haizel, in the NRC.

The defendants in the case were Nana Afari Twako VI, Divisional Chief of Oguaa, Central Regional House of Chiefs (CRHC), the National House of Chiefs (NHC) with the Oguaa Paramount Chief himself and the Oguaa Traditional Council as co- defendants.

According to the writ of summons filed by plaintiffs on July ,27 2006, in 1998 when Nana Mbrah the fifth , then Paramount Chief of the Oguaa Traditional Area, died, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II was purportedly nominated and installed as successor.

However, on July 29, that same year, one Ekow Garbrah( now deceased), and three others, filed a petition at the Judicial Committee of the CHRC, challenging the qualification of Osabarima Kwesi Atta to be nominated and elected as Omanhen of the Oguaa Traditional Area.

While the petition was pending, Nana Afari Twako the sixth, the then Acting President of the Oguaa Traditional Council, submitted a Chieftaincy Declaration Form (CDF) in respect of Osabarima Kwesi Atta to the CRHC, to be vetted and submitted to the NHC.

In the said CDF, there was a question inquiring whether there was any case pending against Osabarima Kwesi Atta, which Nana Afari Twako stated that there was no case although the petition at the CHRC was pending.

Again, in answer to another question concerning the possession of stool properties, including a black stool, Nana Afari Twako said Osabarima Kwesi Atta had the said properties when he did not have them.

Meanwhile the then Gyaasehen of the Traditional Area had written to the Royal Ebiradze Family and copied the then President of the CRHC, requesting for the black stool, to back their claim that Osabarima Atta qualified to be enstooled

According to the writ of summons, based on the misrepresentation of Nana Afari Twako, as contained in the CDF, and the neglect of the CRC to confirm the information in the CDF, the National House of Chief entered the name of Osabarima Kwesi Atta in the National Register of Chiefs.

It was based on the above that the plaintiffs led by their counsel, Mr. Constantine Kudzedzi, prayed the court to order the National House of Chiefs to remove Osabarima Kwesi Atta's name since the process was based on falsehood.

Having found the argument of the plaintiff valid, the court presided over by Justice Gbiel Simon Surrebaareh, an Appeal Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, directed the removal of Osabarima Kwesi Atta's name from the National Register of Chiefs.

GNA