Destooling Nii Tackie Tawiah Was Legitimate

A former General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Dr. Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, says those who installed Nii Adama Latse II, as the new Ga Mantse, have not committed any wrong. According to Dr. Ayeh, who doubles as counsel for the new Ga �King�, the embattled Ga Mantse, Nii Tackie Tawiah III, was wrongfully enstooled, in that he does not fall within the royal lineage. According to him, the new Chief has the full backing of the Ga People and was installed by the Dzasetse, the only person recognized by the Ga customs to install a chief and something Nii Tackie Tawiah III did not avail himself to, he opined. Dr. Aryeh therefore says there is no ground for describing Tackie Tawiah�s overthrow as illegal. Dr. Josiah Aryeh, who was speaking on Citi FM�s Big Issue on Saturday June 18, stated that the disputed Ga chief, known in private life as Dr. Joe Blankson whose legitimacy is being challenged cannot be described as King of the Ga State. �The root of the problem is that, Joe Blankson was never qualified. He was never enstooled by the appropriate authorities. There is law and order in the Ga society and there is an institution that installs chiefs. It is not for people to install themselves or their family heads. If I went to Tema and declared myself chief there without the involvement of the appropriate traditional institution, you don�t expect the people of Tema to sit down and say nothing because I was the first to get myself installed, I should be permitted to be there until various things are done. It�s been five years of going before the Greater Accra Regional House of chiefs and nothing has been done� he bemoaned. �This man (Nii Tackie Tawiah III) does not qualify to be Ga Mantse so the chieftaincy Act section 63, says that man who knows that he should not be King and purports to act as such, commits an offense. That lies squarely at the doorstep of Joe Blankson. And because Joe Blankson was never legitimately enstooled by a Dzatse (Kingmaker), he didn�t have to be destooled because has not been enstooled� Mr. Aryeh noted. But Mr. John Ndebugri, a member of the NPP and a panelist on the programme disagreed with Mr. Aryeh�s stance. According to him, persons who have issues with the Nii Tackie Tawiah�s legitimacy should have resorted to the law since the King had gone through some kind of installation. He (Dr. Aryeh) is talking about the impropriety of the installation but that has taken place already. It is only in his view or in their view that the installation was wrong. That is why the judicial process must be used to set that aside. It can�t be done using self service� he noted. Meanwhile, some elders of the Asere Dzase (Kingmakers) of the Ga State have described the purported installation of Nii Tackie Adama Latse II by the acting Asere Mantse as premature and improper. At a news conference on Thursday June 16, the Asere Dzase elders said laid down procedures were not followed in enstooling Nii Tackie Adama Latse II as the new King of the Ga mashie. They warned that last weekend�s installation and subsequent activities could plunge the Ga State into further chaos if not addressed quickly and properly. They have also challenged the authority with which acting Asere Mantse, Nii Amarkai III enstooled the 'new' Ga Mantse. A Principal Elder of the Asere Ga state, Amarkai Amarteifio, who spoke on behalf of the elders, called for calm and asked stakeholders in the Ga state to allow the Courts to decide the rightful claimant to the Ga stool. Government has called for calm in the Ga State but says it will not determine who the legitmate King is and who is not. It has thus rejected calls from the opposition New Patriotic Party asking for a reinstatement of Nii Tackie Tawiah, the Third.