High Court Orders Houses of Chiefs, Expunge Okogyeman Awuahaa II Name as Chief of Gomoa Ekwamkrom
….And Reinstate Nana Kobina Ekwam X
The matter of who is the rightful Chief of Gomoa Ekwankrom in the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area has been brought to a close following a Cape Coast High Court order that the name of Nana Dr. Okogyeman Awuahaa II should be expunged from all Houses of Chiefs’ registers.
The High Court Order dated July 31, 2026, directed the Houses of Chiefs, Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council, Central Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs to reinstate the name of Nana Kobina Ekwam X, known in private life as Mr. Gabriel Jerom Ocran, as the Chief of Ekwankrom.
The High Court ordered the Ajumako Traditional Council to act within seven (7) days of the order and take the necessary statutory steps within thirty (30) days of the order for the registration of Nana Kobina Ekwam X as Chief of Ekwankrom.
The order resulted from the enforcement of the judgments, especially that of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council.
The Aboradze Royal Family of Gomoa Ekwamkrom comprises three Gates: the Ekwam Gate, Kwaagyaa Gate, and Awuahaa Gate. In the year 2017, I was installed as chief of Gomoa Ekwamkrom as Nana Kobina Ekwam X from the Ekwam Gate after the demise of his uncle, Nana Kweku Ekwam IX
Dissatisfied with the other two sections, one opanyin, Ewudzie Coleman, filed a suit before the Judicial Committee of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council seeking, among other reliefs, a declaration that, since time immemorial, the ascendancy to the Odzikro Stool of Ekwamkrom was by rotation among the three Gates. After a laborious litigation, the Judicial Committee of the Traditional Council determined that ascendancy to the Odzikro Stool of Ekwamkrom is not by rotation.
It was also determined that the Ekwam Gate of the Royal Family is the sole owner of the Stool and that Ebusuapanyin Kojo Acquah is the overall Ebusuapanyin of the Aboradze Royal Family.
After the ruling from the Traditional Council, the plaintiff and his Gate or supporters, including Dr Edmund Ekow Kaitoo, neglected or refused to appeal against the judgment. They filed an application for certiorari, like judicial review, at the Agona Swedru High Court in an attempt to quash the decision of the judicial committee of Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council. The High Court, presided over by Her Ladyship Janet Annima Marfo J., flatly dismissed the certiorari application as unmeritorious.
Thereafter, Dr Kaitoo caused himself to be installed as chief by people who were not members of the Royal Family under the name Nana Dr Okogyeman Awuahaa without the consent, concurrence, or approval of the Ebusuapanyin and the principal members of the Ekwam Gate. The Omanhen of Gomoa Ajumako, under the mistaken belief that the Ekwam Gate (owners of the Stool) had granted so, accepted the installation under the guise that Nana Ekwam X had abdicated.
After the Omanhen’s attention was drawn to the fact that the Royal family had not installed Awuahaa II in an arbitration proceeding and that he was not occupying the Odzikro Stool, the Omanhen and Nananom ordered that Awuahaa II should avail himself for Ebusuapanyin Kojo Acquah to perform the requisite customary rites to occasion a valid abdication of the former and proper installation rituals for the purportedly installed Dr Kaitoo to occupy the Odzikro Stool within two weeks. Otherwise, he is not deemed customarily installed.
Dr Kaitoo refused to make himself available for the performance of the requisite customary rites on the said date, because he would die when he sat on the stool.
To drive home the fact that he is not a chief, Dr Kaitoo requested that he should be allowed to procure a new stool for his enstoolment. The Ebusuapanyin and the principal elders, including Nana Kobina Ekwam X, filed a petition before the arbitration committee of the Central Regional House of Chiefs to investigate and determine whether or not a valid abdication had occurred and whether Dr Edmund Kaitoo’s installation was valid.
Parties including Dr Kaitoo executed a consent form for the matter to be settled by arbitration. The arbitration committee of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, after going into the matter, cited the judgment of the traditional council and that od the high court and determined that, one Emmanuel Griffin who posed himself as the Ebusuapanyin of the family and accepted the installation of Dr. Edmund Kaitoo was actually not the ebusuapanyin of the Aboradze Royal Family and does not hail from the Ekwam Gate. Therefore, his acceptance of the alleged resignation of Nana Ekwam X and installation of Dr. Kaitoo was null and void. The Central Regional House recommended that Dr. Kaitoo’s name (Nana Dr. Awuahaa II) should be expunged from the National Register of Chiefs and reinstate the name of Nana Kobina Ekwam X.
Upon enforcement of the judgment of the Judicial Committee of Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council, The High Court, Cape Coast, ordered the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council, the Central Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs on the 31st of July 2026 to take statutory steps to expunge the name Nana Dr. Awuahaa II from the National Register of Chiefs as Chief of Gomoa Ekwamkrom within 7 and 30 days and re-register Nana Kobina Ekwam X as chief of Gomoa Ekwamkrom.
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