The Paramount Chief of Chiana, Pe Ditundini Adiali Ayagitam III, has been sworn in as the president of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs (UERHOC) after two civil court cases simultaneously filed against him by three paramount chiefs ended with him coming out on top.
The Chiana Pio, as he is also referred to in his traditional area, was sworn in together with the Paramount Chief of Mirigu, Naba Abisa Anonsona Anthony III, as the vice-president of the house by a district court magistrate in Bolgatanga, His Worship Mawukoenya Nutekpor.
The swearing-in ceremony was delayed for several months after his re-election in September, 2024, was met with a court action led by the Paramount Chief of Talensi, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, and seconded by the Paramount Chief of Sandema, Nab Azagsuk Azantilow II.
No sooner had the Tongraan-led case started at High Court ‘1’ in the regional capital, Bolgatanga, than the Paramount Chief of Sakoti, Naba Sigri Bewong, separately filed another civil suit against the Chiana Pio at the same court.
The three litigating paramount chiefs chorused in their statements of claim that Chiana Pio’s re-election as president was inconsistent with the agreed procedure of the house.
They jointly asked the court to declare the election “null and void and of no legal effect” and to set it aside.
The trio requested an interlocutory injunction restraining the Chiana Pio from holding himself out as the president-elect of the house and restraining the registrar from submitting the result of “the said election” to the National House of Chiefs until “the final determination of the case.”
The paramount chiefs also requested a permanent injunction restraining him and the registrar of the house from using their offices to “unilaterally” change the “known and settled practice” of electing a president for the house.
And they even went further by asking the court to slap costs on the Chiana Pio and his co-defendant including the fees they (the three paramount chiefs) paid their own lawyers.
But the lawfare lasted only six months as the trial judge, Justice Charles Gyamfi Danquah, dismissed the case brought before him by the Tongraan and the Sandema paramount chief, declaring that the suit had no basis.
“In conclusion, I state that the plaintiffs have no cause of action against the defendants and the pleadings are accordingly struck out,” the judge stated in his ruling on Monday, 24 March 2025.
The case did not make any legal sense to the court.
That is why the high court judge, who doubles as a court of appeal justice, also stressed in that ruling: “The action constitutes an abuse of the process of the court. The suit is, therefore, dismissed.”
Afterwards, the Sakoti paramount chief quickly and voluntarily withdrew his own case from the court, clearing the way for the swearing-in of the Chiana Pio as the president of the house.
Sources say the lawsuits badly affected the progress of some new developmental projects the Chiana Pio had initiated on behalf of the house.
They said the Chiana Pio was still making efforts to convince some development partners of the need to execute the projects in the region when the Tongraan and the two other paramount chiefs began to wage the lawfare against him.
The Chiana Pio, with support from the government of the United States of America, transformed the house of chiefs’ office building from a mess into a mansion in 2023 after months of renovation.
The fate of those new projects he proposed to the stakeholders before the ‘baseless’ court cases were launched against his re-election now hangs in the balance.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
