Restore name of King Tackie Adama Latse II to National Register of Chiefs – Court

The Fast Track High Court, Kumasi, has ordered the National House of Chiefs to restore or re-enter the name of King Tackie Adama Latse II, in the National Register of Chiefs as the Ga Mantse (Paramount Chief of the Ga State) The Court, presided over by Mr Justice Frederick Tetteh gave the National House of Chiefs 14 days beginning November 11, 2021, within which the order must be carried out. The judgment on Thursday was in response to an application seeking for the reinstatement of the name expunged from the register. It follows an earlier court ruling granting that George Tackie Abia or Nii Tackie Adama II, be prohibited from performing his duties as king until an appropriate body or institution determine who was the legitimate occupant of the Ga Mantse stool”.

The court ruling in favour of Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, ordering the National House of Chiefs to restore the name into the National Register of Chiefs, awarded him Gh¢25,000 as compensation for the actions of the respondents. According to the Court ruling, the National House of Chiefs unlawfully and unjustifiably acted ultra vires expunging the name of the Nii Tackie Adama II, (Applicant from the National Register of Chiefs. In the ruling, the High Court held that the National House of Chiefs (Respondent) unlawful and unjustifiable deletion or expunging of the name of the the Applicant herein was arbitrary and prejudicial. It further contended that the refusal and or failure of the Respondent to re-enter the name of the Applicant herein in the National Register of Chiefs as being against the principle of natural justice. Concerning the latter court case, there was contention between George Tackie Abia and one Dr Kelvin Abia Tackie over the stool.

The two claimants were part of two other persons presented to be vetted and elected for enstoolment in accordance with the customs, traditions, conventions and usages of the Ga State in 2011, after the death of late Boni Nii Amugi in 2004 and his burial in 2007. George Tackie Abia was elected and enstooled as Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, the successor to the late Amugi according to Abola Piam We Royal Family, one of the four Ruling Houses of the Ga Paramount Stool. On April 24, 2015, his name was entered into the National Register of Chiefs as the Ga Mantse (Paramount Chief) and he has remained so, “residing in the Ga Mantse Palace until 2017” said Nii Oto-ga, the Ga Dzaasetse (Principal Kingmaker).

The Ga Mantse was in same year alleged to have been removed from the Ga Royal Stool House by some police and soldiers from the Regional Security Council, who locked up the Palace and installed Dr Kelvin Nii Tackie Abia as new Ga Mantse . This created a protracted dispute between the two factions, necessitating the setting up of a 17-member Fact-finding Committee chaired by Justice Mrs Julia Naa Yardley Sarkodie-Mensah who replaced late Justice Cyril Richard Arthur Crabe. Their task was to inquire into events surrounding the chieftaincy dispute and to make recommendations. On May 9, 2020 Dr Kelvin Tackie Abia, now Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, was inducted into office and as the President of the Ga Traditional Council, under heavy security. The Dzaasetse, for the Ga State pronounced him the legitimate occupant of the presidency of the Ga Traditional Council. Meanwhile, Nii Tackie Adama Latse II was elected by the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs as one of the five representatives at the National House of Chiefs.

Nii Tackie Adama Latse II’s induction into the National House of Chiefs was expected to take place on November 12, 2020, following his enstoolment as Paramount Chief in 2015. However, an application of prohibition was filed against him two days earlier, to the induction, which the Kumasi High Court granted on March 29, 2021. He was restrained from holding himself as Ga Mantse until an appropriate body or institution determined who was the legitimate occupant of the stool, before his induction into the House. According to the aggrieved claimant, by April 12, 2021 the National House of Chiefs had taken his name out from the National Register of Chiefs based on the court ruling, after the members of the House conferred among themselves. Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, in his instant ex parte motion of notice to the Fast Track High Court, argued that there was no order contained in the ruling to the effect that his name should be deleted. He further stated that since the entry of his name into the Register in 2015, he has never “misconducted himself, abdicated nor have been destooled by the Kingmaker of the Ga State”.