Installation of multiple claimants to a single stool worrisome and recipe for disaster – Volta House of Chiefs on rising cases of Chieftaincy disputes

The Volta Regional House of Chiefs is appalled by the installation of multiple claimants to a single stool and said the situation needed urgent attention to forestall bloodbath and violence.

Mr Harry Attipoe, Registrar of the House, who raised the concern at its first meeting of the year, said the incidences had multiplied in recent times, raising fears of chieftaincy clashes in the Region.

Kingmakers and structures

He, therefore, appealed to kingmakers to ensure the necessary dialogues were exhausted before the enstoolment to help bring a meaningful end to the disputes.

Togbe Tepre Hodo IV, President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, said ìwrongî kingmakers were a major problem and called on clans to properly constitute and maintain an impregnable structure of kingmakers.

He said each clan must maintain its criteria for appointing kingmakers to help keep out pretenders.

“The problem has to do with people who also pretend to be kingmakers. Because every stool has its own kingmakers and the Supreme Court has decided in a case called Essilfie vs Anerfo that it is only the kingmakers of a particular stool who have the power to enstool and destool a chief.”

“So, you see, some of the incidents of two people vying for the same stool, it is as the result of some people who have arrogated to themselves the position of kingmakers when in fact they are not.”

“That is why we are making appeals to the chiefs that it is high time they identify the kingmakers of all the stools within their jurisdiction, so we weed out these pretenders because sometimes they are the source of the problem,” the President of the House told news reporters after the meeting.

He said the House was scrutinizing the processes and undertaking an administrative process to generate a database of all kingmakers of all traditional areas

Togbe Tepre Hodo said the House had also commenced an exercise to draw up the lines of succession to stools to help ensure smooth transitions of traditional authority in the Region.

Other chiefs supported the call to address challenges with succession in the Region and the plan to strengthen administrative and traditional structures.

The House appointed committees to consider disputes ongoing in various traditional areas, including Agortime, Kpenoe, Akini, Aflao, Abutia and Liati.

Development in the Volta Region

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, who had paid a call on the House, said the political administration would be available to assist traditional authorities in their developmental pursuits.

He said his office would ensure the various agencies and departments of the government provided the needed cooperation to the House.

He thanked the chiefs for their role in maintaining peace and security in the Region and said the government had recognized more traditional councils, which would be granted soon.

The Regional Minister also said roads in the Region had been given special attention in recent times and listed progress of work on prime roads, including the Eastern Corridor, the Ho to Aflao, and the Ho carriageway and bypass.

The top Management of the Lands Commission, Regional heads of the National Fire Service, and the Regional Director of the Department of Gender, also called on the House during the meeting.

Two paramount chiefs, who were recently installed, Togbi Tenge Dzokoto Gligui VII, of Amugo-Wego Traditional Area and Togbe Dadzi V of Penyi, were inducted as members of the House