Worawora Royal Family Disowns Chieftaincy Gazette, Cites Standing Court Order

A fresh dispute has flared over the Worawora paramount stool in Ghana's Oti Region, after the Adako-Oyoko Royal Family issued a press statement disowning what it says is an unlawful gazetting of a rival claimant by the National House of Chiefs.

The Family's Position
In a statement dated 2 August 2026 and signed by Obaasima Nana Ama Anowaa Boah Nyarko, Nkosuohemaa of the Worawora Traditional Area, the Adako-Oyoko Royal Family said its attention had been drawn to media reports that one Yaw Kwapong, a native of Tapa Amanya in the Oti Region, had been gazetted by the National House of Chiefs as Chief of Worawora under the name Nana Safro Baah. The family described this as a "self-styled" claim made despite an existing court ruling that bars any individual from holding himself out as Chief of Worawora pending determination of the substantive chieftaincy dispute.

The statement characterized the gazetting as a clear undermining of due process, an abuse of Ghanaian law, and an affront to the chieftaincy institution. It called on citizens, natives and residents of Worawora and its environs to disregard the gazette as false and of no legal effect, and asked the Oti Regional House of Chiefs, the National House of Chiefs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigation and National Security to take keen interest in the matter and help safeguard the town's peace.

A Long-Running Dispute
The Worawora stool has been the subject of one of the Oti Region's longest-running chieftaincy disputes, with roots the Adako-Oyoko family traces back generations through the Adwoa Druwaa matrilineal line. The family, whose ancestors are said to have migrated from Kuntanase near Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region before settling in present-day Worawora, has for years pressed the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II whom the family regards as the ultimate custodian of the Worawora paramount stool along with the regional and national Houses of Chiefs and the government, to ensure that succession follows what it considers authentic matrilineal custom rather than what it has previously described as irregular, patrilineal enstoolments.

In January 2025, the family's Nkosuohemaa held a press conference raising similar concerns and invoking the Great Oath of the Asantehene against a rival claimant she accused of continuing to perform enstoolments in defiance of customary injunctions. The dispute appeared to reach a turning point in late 2024 and 2025, when Otumfuo Osei Tutu II presided over the installation of Nana Yaw Safor Baah III as Paramount Chief of the Worawora Traditional Council, an event widely reported at the time as having ended a decade-long leadership vacuum.

Safor Baah III subsequently swore allegiance to the Asantehene at Manhyia Palace in December 2025, in a ceremony attended by traditional leaders from Kuntase, Kokofu, Tapa Amanya, Buem-Jasikan, Apesokubi and Worawora.

Whether the individual now named in the family's latest statement is connected to that earlier installation, or represents a separate and competing claim to a similar-sounding stool name, is not something this publication can independently verify at this time. What is clear from the family's own account is that the underlying contest over the Worawora stool between claimants the family regards as legitimate under matrilineal custom and others it has repeatedly labeled "self-styled" has continued to resurface despite successive attempts at resolution.

Why It Matters
Chieftaincy disputes of this kind carry real stakes beyond ceremonial title. Paramount stools in Ghana carry authority over land allocation, local development priorities, and the ability to represent a traditional area before regional and national institutions, which is precisely why gazetting by the National House of Chiefs is treated as consequential and why a family disputing that gazette would move quickly to place its objection on the public record.

Worawora's own history includes periods where chieftaincy tensions spilled beyond press statements and legal petitions into community unrest requiring a police presence, underscoring why the Adako-Oyoko family's appeal to security agencies, alongside chieftaincy authorities, is not merely procedural.

This publication has reached out to the National House of Chiefs and will update this report with any response regarding the status of the disputed gazette and the court order the family says remains in force.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

[email protected]
+233-555-275-880
References
Press statement, Office of the Nkosuohemaa, Adako-Oyoko Royal Family, Worawora Traditional Area, 2 August 2026.

ModernGhana, "Worawora: Community, Police, and a Decade-Long Chieftaincy Dispute." https://www.modernghana.com/news/1486841/worawora-community-police-and-a-decade-long.html

ModernGhana, "The Adako Royal Family and the Worawora Chieftaincy (Osease)." https://www.modernghana.com/news/1467190/the-adako-royal-family-and-the-worawora-chieftainc.html

GhanaWeb, "Royal Oyoko clan calls on President Mahama, Otumfuo to resolve chieftaincy crises in Worawora." https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/regional/Royal-Oyoko-clan-calls-on-President-Mahama-Otumfuo-to-resolve-chieftaincy-crises-in-Worawora-1969162

Adomonline, "Otumfuo installs new Paramount Chief for Worawora." https://www.adomonline.com/otumfuo-installs-new-paramount-chief-for-worawora/

GhanaWeb, "Why Worawora chiefs in Oti Region pledge allegiance to Asanteman - Historian details." https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Why-Worawora-chiefs-in-Oti-Region-pledge-allegiance-to-Asanteman-Historian-details-2014160