The Chief Justice (CJ) is to empanel a tribunal to hear the concerns of Lolobi and Akpafu traditional areas, in the newly created Oti Region, who are challenging the decision to place the communities under Jasikan District.
Nana Akoto Masakyi III, the Paramount Chief of Lolobi Traditional Area and Nana
Tetteh-Attu IV, the Adontehene, and Acting Paramount Chief of Akpafu
Traditional Area had dragged the Electoral Commission (EC) to the Supreme Court
(SC) for removing them from the Hohoe municipality in the Volta Region.
At proceedings yesterday, the Chief Justice Anin Yeboah, asked
counsel for the applicants, Mr Martin Kpebu to petition him the (CJ) so that
the matter could be sent to the appropriate forum.
The traditional leaders said the decision by the EC to place them in the newly
created Jasikan District was in bad faith, since the people of Lolobi and
Akpafu did not petition the President, neither did they ask the Justice Brobey
Commission to include the two areas in the Oti Region.
A statement of claim accompanied by a number of declarations, said that the
chiefs and people of Akpafu had consistently maintained since 1945 that
they did not want to be part of the Jasikan/Buem District, Constituency or the
Oti Region.
Their counsel, Mr Kpebu contended that the duties and powers of the EC does not
include the power to create districts.
The plaintiffs stated that the defendant had laid before Parliament a
constitutional instrument under the caption, “District Electoral
Areas and Designation of Units Regulations, 2019” in which it seeks
to demarcate electoral boundaries pursuant to its powers under paragraph (b) of
article 45 and article 51 of the 1992 Constitution.
It is the case of the plaintiffs that in the said instrument, the defendant has
unlawfully deleted Lolobi and Akpafu from the Hohoe Municipality and placed
them under a newly created Jasikan District, contrary to article 241(2) of the
1992 Constitution and sections 1(2) and (3) of the Local Governance Act, 2016
(Act 936).
On January 29, 2018, the plaintiffs averred that the Paramount Chief of Lolobi
Traditional Area presented a “Technical Report” and other documents
to the Justice Brobey Commission at the Osu Castle and the Commission duly
acknowledged receipt.
Again on March 16, 2016, the plaintiffs stated Nana Kofi Adu II, a
sub-Divisional Chief of Akpafu Todzi, wrote to the Brobey Commission on behalf
of the two traditional areas, through the office of the President, Jubilee
House, Accra, to request that Akpafu and Lolobi areas be excluded from the
proposed Oti Region.
They said on October 17, 2018, when a Joint Steering Committee from Lolobi and
Akpafu met the chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa, to demand answers as to
why the two communities had been designated to participate in a scheduled
referendum regarding the proposed Oti Region, the chairperson responded that
her hands were tied, but advised them to petition the President and Minister of
Regional Reorganisation and Development, which they did.
The Plaintiffs said in spite of this, the defendant went ahead to organise
elections (referendum) in the affected traditional areas, which election
recorded an abysmal 11 per cent turnout, way below the constitutionally
mandated minimum 50 per cent turnout.
The plaintiffs asked for a declaration that the defendant has no power to
create a district in Ghana.
They urged the apex court to say that the inclusion of Lolobi and Akpafu
communities under the Jasikan District of the Oti Region is in violation of
article 241(2) of the 1992 Constitution.
The traditional leaders asked the court for a perpetual injunction restraining
the defendant from forcibly removing Lolobi and Akpafu Traditional areas from the
Hohoe municipality.
