Petition Of  New Juaben Kontihene To National House Of Chiefs President—A Fatal Misjudgment

At an emergency meeting on 22nd September 2020, the New Juaben Traditional Council issued the following comments on the petition sent by Kontihene to the National House of Chiefs President:

The Kontihene of New Juaben, Baffuor Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng, was found guilty of some serious customary breaches last year which were all recorded in the minutes of the Traditional Council meetings. In accordance with tradition, he is expected to seek clemency and restitution. Instead, he has decided to estrange himself from the activities of the New Juaben Traditional Council.

He recently sent a petition to the President of the National House of Chiefs with copies to various media platforms without recourse to the Omanhene or the Traditional Council. This act violates customary law and the hierarchy of the Traditional Council establishment. The action taken by the Kontihene constitutes a betrayal of the sacred oath he has sworn to the Paramount Stool and the Traditional Area and calls into sharp focus his loyalty and integrity to the Stool.

If Kontihene had exercised the essential due diligence over this matter by first checking from the Traditional Council, he would have realized that a). the Traditional Council submitted the genuine names of the twelve Divisional Chiefs to the National House of Chiefs and that b). the Omanhene had already written to the President of the National House of Chiefs to amend the LI of the detected errors with the specific inclusion of the names of the twelve Divisional Chiefs originally submitted but inadvertently excluded from the LI.

Kontihene made the fallacious and vicious statement in his petition that “anomalies have occurred in the list presented to the National House of Chiefs and its President.” This statement is falsely blaming the Traditional Council without any basis whatsoever. If he was so sure that the original list submitted by the Traditional Council contained these anomalies, why didn’t he produce that list as documentary evidence to justify his wild claim?

He admitted in his petition that he deduced his evidence from the LI which means that he has never seen the original submission from the Traditional Council to the National House of Chiefs. Yet he jumps to the unsavoury conclusion of falsely blaming the Traditional Council for the error detected in the LI relating to the New Juaben listing without any factual proof. What a contorted and twisted logic!

This is completely an illogical assumption given the fact that the original list submitted by the Traditional Council passed through several institutions including the National House of Chiefs, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affaires, the Attorney General’s Office and Parliament before it became law. Institutional errors, mostly accidental, sometimes occur and could have happened at any of the aforementioned institutional points of passage.

Furthermore, the Traditional Council did not have the option of editing the draft law pertaining to New Juaben. In view of these circumstances, how can any rational person jump to the unsubstantiated conclusion that an error detected in the LI on the New Juaben listing must emanate from the Traditional Council? This is a massive fatal misjudgment on the part of Kontihene, Baafuor Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng.

By writing directly to the President of the National House of Chiefs without passing through the Omanhene or the Traditional Council, Kontihene has committed two significant breaches. The first breach is his failure to pass the petition through his Overlord in accordance with customary law and usage. The second is by bypassing the Traditional Council, the ultimate traditional leadership power, which has the legal mandate of original jurisdiction over all matters and causes affecting Chieftaincy in the Traditional Area, thus contravening the Chieftaincy Act of 2008.

The Traditional Council reiterates its praise for the bold and courageous fight by the Omanhene leading eventuality to the allocation of six Divisional Chiefs in the reconstituted Eastern Regional House of Chiefs. We assure the Omanhene of our unflinching support and will add our voice to supplicate the continuance of Divine blessings for an exemplary leadership in the New Juaben Traditional Area.

Nana Twumasi Dankwa

Acting President, New Juaben Traditional Area.