Nii Ayi Bonte II calls for peace, unity at Gbese
The Gbese Mantse, Nii Ayi Bonte II, has called for peace and unity among all the claimants to the Gbese Stool.
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He said without unity and peace there would be no development, so there was the need for all to bury their differences and unite for the well-being of the Gbese stool in particular and the whole of Ga state.
Nii Ayi Bonte ll was speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra yesterday, following the judgement by the Court of Appeal in Kumasi and the Ga Traditional Council in February this year.
Court of appeal
The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Kumasi High Court that Nii Ayi Bonte II is the substantive Gbese Mantse.
According to him the Ga Traditional Council also on February 10, 2015, confirmed him as the legitimate Gbese Mantse and restrained his rival, Bill Okaidja Annan, from using the title or describing himself as Nii Okaidja III, and awarded costs of GH¢5,000 against him.
He said the Court of Appeal in Kumasi held that the purported deletion of his name from the register of chiefs by the National House of Chiefs was null and void.
That, he said, followed an appeal filed by the National House of Chiefs against the ruling of the High Court dated November 7, 2014, which ordered the reinstatement of the name of Nii Ayi Bonte II in the register of the National House of Chiefs.
Three-member panel
Explaining the details of the judgement, Nii Ayi Bonte indicated that a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice E. K, Ayer, said after a total review of all the processes filed and addresses by counsel on both sides, there was no basis to overturn the decision of the High Court and consequently affirmed it.
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He said the court, therefore, awarded costs of GH¢1,000 against the National House of Chiefs.
Nii Ayi Bonte said following the judgement the National House of Chiefs complied with the order and in a letter dated February 19, 2015, it acknowledged that in pursuance of the decision of the Kumasi High Court of November 7, 2014, “The National House of Chiefs has restored the name of Nii Ayi Bonte II, Gbese Mantse in the National Register of Chiefs.”
Status challenged
Nii Ayi Bonte II was enstoolled on April 27, 2007 as the Gbese Mantse. However, his status was challenged on the basis of a judgement by the judicial committee of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs dated February 17, 2003.
On January 16, 2014, the Supreme Court quashed the 2003 judgement of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs, prompting Nii Ayi Bonte II to issue a writ of summons before the Judicial committee of the Ga Traditional Council, seeking a declaration that he was the Gbese Mantse and lawful successor to the late Gbese Mantse Nii Okai Pesemaku III.
Legitimate Gbese Mantse
The Dzaase-tse, Nii Okai Kasablofo, IV, Principal kingmaker of the Gbese Stool, indicated that the protracted chieftaincy dispute in Gbese should be laid to rest now following the two rulings.
He, therefore, called on the parties laying claim to the Gbese stool to let the matter rest, since it had taken 36 solid years of bitter litigation which started in 1979 and ended on February 15, 2015 to ascertain who was the true Gbese Mantse.