COURT DISMISSES STAY OF EXECUTION (Page 24)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

THE Fast Track High Court in Kumasi has dismissed an application for stay of execution filed by Nii Larbie Mensah IV, pending the determination of an appeal against an order for the deletion of his name as chief of Ablekuma from the national registrar of chiefs.
Mr Justice Kwame Ansu-Gyeabour, who presided, said, “I have no doubt in my mind that the application has no merit whatsoever and must fail.”
Costs of GH¢300 were awarded against Nii Larbie.
Nii Larbie had sought an order from the court for a stay of execution after a Kumasi High Court had ruled on June 22, 2007, that the National House of Chiefs should take steps to remove his name from the national register of chiefs for the Greater Accra Region because it was not properly done.
The substantive matter for the deletion of the name of Nii Larbie from the register of the National House of Chiefs was filed by Nii Larbie Mensah and Mr Adjin Tetteh, both of Ablekuma.
Arguing for the stay of execution, counsel for the applicant, Mr A.A. Somua-Asamoah, said that to remove the name of his client from the register of chiefs and insert another person’s name was only to duplicate matters and bring unnecessary tension in the Ablekuma area.
He further stated that the ruling on June 22, 2007 was not “an executable order.
Counsel argued that the execution process did not affect the original ruling because there was no executable order.
In his reply, counsel for respondent, Mr Obeng Manu, said since the National House of Chiefs could be brought before the High Court for contempt if it failed to carry out the order to delete the name of the applicant, the ruling was executable.