Court slaps injunction on Hoteliers Association

The incumbent Chairman of the Tema branch of the Ghana Hoteliers Association (GHA), Nana Kodjo Opei IV, has declared war against the national executive members of the Association, for not allowing him and other members, who are members of the Tema chapter, to contest the various positions in the forthcoming elections of the body.

Accordingly, he has caused an injunction to be placed on the election, which was scheduled to have taken place last Saturday at Koforidua, through an Accra High Court, which was presided over by Justice E. F. Dzakpasu.

The Accra High Court, last Wednesday, placing the injunction, noted, “It is hereby ordered that the Defendants herein, its agents, assigns, servants, privies workmen or howsoever called, be and hereby restrained from any current and/or further activity relating to its planned elections on 27th March, 2010.”

The reason for the Tema Regional Chairman going to court wasbecause he had been unjustifiably disqualified, he claimed, from contesting for the position of National President of the Association.

In his statement of claim, Nana Opei IV, who is also the proprietor of Oklemekuku Hotel in Tema, noted that on January 29, 2004, at the Association's National Executive Council meeting held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, a decision was taken to separate Tema from the Greater Accra Region, and elevate it to the status of a region.

Consequently, on June 9, 2004, at the Subin Valley Hotel Complex, the Tema branch of the Association was formally inaugurated by the current National President of the Association, Nana Kofi Adjei Twinin I.

“As a result of these set of circumstances, the Tema branch attained autonomy from the Greater Accra Region branch of the Defendant Association, which for all intents and purposes, recognised it as a separate branch for the activities of the Defendant Association,” the statement noted.

It continued that for the past six years, the Tema branch had been hosting the National Executive Council meetings of the Association, and in all other activities, conducted itself as a separate and autonomous branch, like the other regional branches of the Association, as contained within the Association's constitution, and other such regulations.

Come tomorrow, March 27, 2010, the Association is expected to hold its National Elections at Koforidua, and as a result, had been receiving nominations from its members for election to the various national positions in the Association, and therefore Nana Opei IV applied.

The statement further continued: “Several decisions taken by the National Executive Council of the Association showed a high incidence of bias against the plaintiff, and other executive members of the Tema branch of the Association, who desired to run for the available national offices of the Association.”

The statement claimed: “One of such decisions that has affected him, in his bid to seek the office of National President, was taken on 10th February, 2010 at Ellking Hotel, Accra, where the National Executive Council of the Association, purported to declare that all the members of the Tema branch of the Association were disqualified from standing for elections to any office of the Association, on the grounds that Tema was not a region in the Republic of Ghana.”

According to the Tema Regional Chairman, his purported disqualification, and that of the other members of the Tema branch of the Association, was unlawful, and not in accordance with the constitution and other regulations of the Association, and rather discriminatory and unfair.

He was therefore seeking a declaration that his purported disqualification from contesting for the elections for the position of National President of the Association, for being a member of the Tema branch of the Association, was unlawful and discriminatory.

He was also seeking for an order to set aside his purported disqualification from contesting for the elections for the position of National President of the Association.

Nana Opei IV is further asking the court for an order of perpetual injunction, to restrain the Association from disenfranchising him on unlawful and discriminatory grounds, not to contest for the office of National President of the Association tomorrow.