Worawora Stool Crisis Deepens: Register Extract Shows Rival Claimant Gazetted Months After Court Injunction

Worawora, Oti Region A simmering chieftaincy dispute over the matrilineal Paramount Stool of the Adako-Oyoko Royal Family of Worawora has escalated, after an extract from the National Register of Chiefs surfaced showing that a contested enstoolment was formally approved by the National House of Chiefs more than two months after a Kumasi High Court order had explicitly barred the Registry from processing it.

A Stool Under Dispute
The Worawora Traditional Area, in Ghana's Oti Region, has for months been gripped by a succession dispute centered on who is entitled to occupy the Adako-Oyoko family's matrilineal Paramount Stool. On one side stands the Nkosuohemaa and the family's recognized elders and kingmakers, who maintain that Mr Yaw Kwapong enstooled under the stool name Nana Sarfo Baah III is neither a legitimate heir under the family's customary line of succession nor a native of the area. On the other side is a rival faction, whose officials, including a man identified publicly as Charles Anobaah, styling himself "Nana Aborah" and holding the office of Sanaahene, has continued to promote and defend Kwapong's enstoolment.

The Court Order
The Kumasi High Court issued an order of injunction on 7th May 2026 in Suit No. E10/04/26, The Republic vs. The Registrar, National House of Chiefs, restraining Mr Kwapong, together with his agents, assigns and privies, from holding himself out as chief, performing traditional functions, or taking any further steps toward registration, pending final determination of the substantive matter. According to the Nkosuohemaa's faction, Kwapong and his side were duly served with the order.

What the Register Extract Shows
An extract from the National Register of Chiefs for the Oti Region, issued by the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi and certified as a true copy on 10th August 2026, has since been publicly displayed and circulated including by Anobaah himself. The document lists two entries for the Worawora Paramount Stool, both bearing the same National House of Chiefs approval date of 30th July 2026:

Serial No. 268: stool name "Dasebre Asare Baah III," private name Ephraim Yaw Nyamekye nature of change recorded as death, dated 11th August 2025; date approved by the National House of Chiefs: 30th July 2026.

Serial No. 269: stool name "Nana Safro Baah III," private name Emmanuel Yaw Kwapong nature of change recorded as enstoolment, purportedly dated 28th December 2024; date approved by the National House of Chiefs: 30th July 2026.
That shared approval date three months after the Kumasi High Court's May injunction is now the central fact at issue. The Nkosuohemaa's faction contends it demonstrates, on the Registry's own paperwork, that both the vacation of the stool and Kwapong's enstoolment were formally approved in direct defiance of a subsisting judicial order.

Petition Filed
In response, the Nkosuohemaa, Abusuapanin Osei Kwame, Obaapanin Nana Ama Pokua Nyarko, and the family's elders and kingmakers have filed a formal petition dated 19th August 2026 with the National House of Chiefs, copied to the President of the National House of Chiefs, the Supervising High Court Judge at Kumasi, and the Chairman of the Judicial Committee of the Oti Regional House of Chiefs.

The petition, signed by Obaasima Nana Ama Anowaa Boah Nyarko, Nkosuohemaa, asks the House to halt and expunge Serial No. 269 from the register, treat any administrative steps taken toward the gazetting as null and void, and refrain from further processing until the substantive chieftaincy dispute which is not before the Kumasi High Court but currently pending before the Judicial Committee of the Oti Regional House of Chiefs, with a possible further appeal to the National House of Chiefs at Manhyia is finally determined.

A Dispute Playing Out in Public
The controversy has not stayed confined to the courtroom or the Registry. Anobaah's public display and circulation of the register extract rather than quiet reliance on it has effectively turned a procedural dispute into a public contest over legitimacy, with each side now marshalling documentary evidence for an audience well beyond Worawora. For the Nkosuohemaa's faction, the extract intended to vindicate Kwapong's enstoolment has instead become, in their telling, the clearest evidence yet of the very contempt they allege.

What Happens Next
The substantive chieftaincy dispute is not before the Kumasi High Court whose role has been limited to the injunction restraining the Registry but is currently pending before the Judicial Committee of the Oti Regional House of Chiefs, with the prospect of a further appeal to the National House of Chiefs at Manhyia should either side be dissatisfied with the regional ruling. Whether the National House of Chiefs acts on the petition to reverse the July gazetting before the Regional House rules, or leaves the entry standing pending that process, will likely shape how the dispute is perceived both within the Adako-Oyoko family and among Ghana's wider chieftaincy institutions, which continue to grapple with how gazetting processes should interact with active judicial restraints.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.
International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP
mustysallama@gmail.com
+233-555-275-880

Sources
Petition to the National House of Chiefs, Adako-Oyoko Royal Family of Worawora, dated 19th August 2026 (family records).

Kumasi High Court, Suit No. E10/04/26, The Republic vs. The Registrar, National House of Chiefs, and Order of Injunction/Prohibition dated 7th May 2026.

National House of Chiefs, Kumasi Extract from the National Register of Chiefs, Oti Region, and certified true copy dated 10th August 2026.

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