How Awulae Amihere Kpanyile III Brought Peace To W/R House Of Chiefs

A gentleman’s agreement between members of the Western Regional House of Chiefs (WRHC) to have Nana Kobina Nketsiah V, Omanhene of Essikado and Nana Kwesi Agyemang, Omanhene of Lower Dixcove, elected as President and Vice president, has succeeded in uniting the once divided House.

Before the ‘agreement’, the House was scheduled to have an election and Nana Kobina Nketsiah, after close of nomination, was the only candidate who filed to contest for the position.

Nana KwesiAgyemang was also going unopposed for the Vice president position.But for an injunction application filed by AwulaeAngamatuo Gyan II, Omanhene of Gwira, the House would have validly elected Kobina Nketsiah and Kwesi Agyemang as president and vice respectively, to steer the affairs of the House for the period of 2024 -2028.

But in his quest to restore peace in the House, Awulae Amihere Kpanyile III, Omanhene of Eastern Nzema, had to pay the ultimate price that led to the gentleman agreement and selection of five other chiefs to represent the House at the National House of Chiefs (NHC).
Prior to the gentleman agreement, the House had been thrown into disarray for a period of four years over litigation.

Between 2020 and 2024, the House could not sit to convene meetings because of litigation over the 2020 disputed election that elected Tetretteh Okuamoah Sekyim, Omanhene of Wassa Amenfi, as president and Angamatuo Gyan as vice president.

The disputed 2020 election dragged on for four years at the Court until judgement was finally given nullifying the election in the end.

BACKGROUND

On the day the 2020 disputed election was held, a suit purportedly emanating from the Supreme Court was served on the House, challenging one of the contestants, AwulaeAmihereKpanyile III, Omanhene of Eastern Nzema for contesting the presidency of the House.
The plaintiff challenged the use of the name AmihereKpanyile as basis for the suit in question.

There were divergent opinions amongst the chiefs over whether or not defendant in the suit could still go ahead to contest the election despite the suit hanging around his neck.
In the end, the Registrar of the House plus those chiefs who dissented had their day and defendant was disallowed from contesting the election.

That declared TetrettehOkuamoahSekyim as unopposed candidate and same got elected together with Angamatuo Gyan as vice president.
Unsatisfied, defendant AmihereKpanyile filed a Certiorari application before a Sekondi High Court, presided over by Justice Hannah Taylor.

AmihereKpanyile was represented by Ekow AmuaSekyi as Lawyer for the Certiorari application.

Justice Hannah Taylor granted the Certiorari application and quashed the House election, ordering for a fresh election.

Angamatuo Gyan, Hima Dekyi and others disagreed with Justice Hannah Taylor’s judgement and appealed against the certiorari application by way of a review before another High Court Judge, Justice Dr. Richmond Osei Hwere.

The plaintiffs/defendants argued and prayed the judge to set aside the Certiorari application because they did not have the chance to argue their case in the certiorari application. In the end, the Judge quashed the election of the president.

However, the election of Angamatuo Gyan as vice president was not quashed. The reason being that it was not a subject of litigation before the court,what that meant was that, Angamatuo Gyan’s election as Vice president was valid.
AwulaeAttibrukusu, Kwesi Agyemang, KwawEntsie in turn brought another fresh suit before same Justice Dr. Osei Hwere to dismiss the entire disputed election because there was no quorum formed. Plaintiffs were represented by John Mercer.

The suit had Angamatuo Gyan, Hima Dekyi and the Registrar of the House as defendants.
Upon hearing arguments for and against, the judge ruled for the plaintiffs, nullifying the entire election and same ordering for a fresh election.
Unsatisfied, defendants through their counsel, Ishmael Ackah, filed for a stay of execution on grounds that they were going to appeal against the judgement, but the court dismissed the stay application.

Consequently, defendants/applicants appealed against the Sekondi High Court judge ruling nullifying the election.
Due to these legal wrangling,  the four year tenure had almost been exhausted and was time for a fresh election to elect new executives to steer the affairs of the House for the next four years; 2024 to 2028.

As the House prepared to go for a fresh election, Angamatuo Gyan filed  fresh petition  with another pending injunction notice at a Sekondi High Court on grounds that he had appealed Justice Dr. Richmond Osei Hwere’s judgement  nullifying the disputed election on grounds of no quorum.

As a result, he prayed the Court to injunct the fresh election until his appeal had been heard and determined. Angamatuo Gyan’s fresh injunction notice succeeded in stopping the House from conducting any election.
This development seemed to frustrate AmihereKpanyile from putting himself up for another contest.

Indeed, Justice Dr. Osei Hwere in one of his rulings in the case entitled Attibrukusu and others versus House of Chiefs Sekondi, remarked that the suit against AmihereKpanyile in the Supreme Court, challenging the use of the name ‘AmihereK panyile” appeared to frustrate the latter from contesting the election.
This is because those behind the suit did not pursue it after filing.

The Judge, therefore, commended Amihere Kpanyile for fighting to get justice in the end.
But despite the court clearance, AmihereKpanyile decided to pay the ultimate price by withdrawing from contesting to become president and representation to the NHC.

This paved the way for new candidates to contest the election.
As far back as November 14, 2024, Amihere Kpanyile had in a letter addressed to the Registrar withdrawn from the contesting any position in other to ensure peace at the House.

In the letter dated November 14, 2024 under the headline:  “Truth, Unity and Peace”, which this writer intercepted, Amihere Kpanyile wrote “in view of the circumstances surrounding the House and the health of sustained and a revered chieftaincy system in the region; upon further reflections and considerations, I have decided to withdraw from the elections, which shall be held to select representatives to the National House of Chiefs for this term.

I, therefore, call on the Registrar of the House to accordingly expunge my name from the list of candidates.  I wish the remaining contestant all the best”.
This wise decision taken by AmihereKpanyile certainly helped to heal the wounded House leading to the successful ‘gentleman agreement’ to have Omanhene of Essikado, Kobina Nketsiahelected as president and Nana Kwesi Agyemang, Omanhene of Lower Dixcove as vice president.

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