By James Esuon, GNA
Gomoa Ajumako (C/R), April 22, GNA – The Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council has organised a workshop for more than 160 new chiefs and family heads to update them on Chieftaincy matters, especially on (Act 759) to help perform their functions effectively.
The chiefs and family heads were taken through land management, customary law and fairness and many others to boost development in the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area.
Some of the topics treated included bye-laws of the traditional Council, dispute resolution, ethics, and personal risks, working with state institutions, commitment, preventive disputes, leadership, peace and development, chieftaincy disputes, and many others.
Obrempong Nyanful Krampah XI, President of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council said the rationale behind the orientation was to keep the newly sworn-in chiefs and queen mothers abreast with the dos and don’ts of the Council.
The President urged the participants to put what they had learnt into practice to help facilitate better management of chieftaincy issues and customary laws of the area.
Obrempong Nyanful Krampah lauded the new chiefs for the impressive conduct shown during their mass swearing-in a fortnight ago, stressing that the workshop was to update their knowledge on chieftaincy matters to ensure peace and development.
The President urged the family heads and kingmakers not to shield any chief who committed crimes but was unknowingly vetted.
He indicated that when such crimes were detected, processes to help the traditional council expunge the name of that chief from the council’s records must be initiated.
The Omanhene said the bye-laws of the Council had spelt out six months duration for any regent of a town without a substantive chief, subjected to renewal based on performance or good conduct until a chief was installed.
He asked that permits for the celebration of Akwambo festivals by various towns in the area should be submitted to the Traditional Council for onward submission to the Ghana Police Service to provide the needed protection.
Also, the Council had set up a Customary Arbitration Center to be commissioned soon to help resolve chieftaincy and family matters.
He said a Customary Land Secretariat had also been established by the Council for chiefs and family heads wishing to lease lands in the area to seek consent of the Council before giving out to investors or group or individuals to reduce litigations.
Obrempong Nyanful Krampah said the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council had come out with a bye-law to ban citizens from pronouncing curses against each other, and any person who flouted it would be punished.
Mr Benedict Bosu Simpson, head of Roseford advocates, one of the resource persons of the workshop said the orientation was to equip traditional leaders with essential legal and governance knowledge to prevent disputes and promote peace and development.
Mr Simpson praised the President of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council for his excellent reforms on Chieftaincy matters and urged chiefs and family heads to rally behind him to champion the course.
He said the chiefs had power to adjudicate cases brought before them, saying, “if it was properly handled without biases or any malice, even the Supreme Court of the Land cannot cancel the final verdict.”
Mr Simpson urged traditional authorities to operate within the law to avoid land and chieftaincy disputes and reduce the risk of dissipating family resources which militate against human transformation.
Mr Ebenezer Kwame Akomaning, another resource person urged chiefs and family heads to try to avoid land litigation, and endeavour to respect orders and injunctions from the court of law, particularly on land matters, and other related issues.
He said under the 1992 Constitution, (Article 270-277) admonished chiefs not to engage in active partisan politics to help maintain the dignity, respect, and credibility of the institution.
Mr Akomaning noted that any chief wishing to become a Member of Parliament would have to abdicate his stool or skin.
That notwithstanding, he noted, clause (1) of the article and paragraph (C) of clause (3) of the article 94 of the constitution, stated that a chief may be appointed to any public office for which he was otherwise qualified.
Mr Akomaning said the chiefs were protected, but not absolutely above the laws of the land and called for cooperation and mutual understanding and serve as ambassadors of development in their respective traditional areas.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/Linda Asante Agyei