🚨 PRESS STATEMENT BY THE TESHIE TRADITIONAL COUNCIL TO DISASSOCIATE ITSELF FROM THE PROPOSED NE0-GA STATE COUNCIL

THURSDAY, 20TH NOVEMBER, 2025

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press.

We have invited you here to disassociate ourselves from the proposed neo-Ga State Council.

We must add quickly that the Ga State Council is a creature of Law i.e. Native Authority Ordinance (1927) of the Gold Coast which law was later abrogated 1961 and replaced by the National the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs and the Traditional Councils. Under this arrangement each Traditional Council has an independent President the totality of which constitutes the members of the Regional House of Chiefs. By law, the Paramount Chiefs of the Region House of Chiefs are the only persons clothed with the power and authority to elect any one among themselves to be their President.

Indeed the Ga Traditional Council Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the National Redemption Council, N.R.C. under the Committee of Inquiry (Ga Traditional Affairs) Instrument, 1975 E.I.111 stated on page 19 of its Report that: “The Ga Mantse has never been the customary overlord of these mantsemei to wit: “Teshie Mantse, Osu Mantse, Labadi Mantse, Teshie Mantse, the Nungua Mantse and Tema Mantse. The Ga Mantse did not have authority for confirmation or recognition of any Mantse who made a report to him.

“We found no custom which made it imperative for the mantsemei of Osu, Labadi, Teshie, Nungua and To Tema to look upon Ga Mantse as their overlord.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As Chiefs of the Teshie Traditional Paramountcy, We maintain that apart from the Statutory Requirement of reporting their enstoolment to the Ga Mantse, any oaths sworn by the Chiefs to the Ga Mantse was to facilitate their admission into the erstwhile Ga State Council

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

Can we imagine a situation in which the purported overlord of the Ga State who being a Member Regional House of Chiefs sits in Council to take orders from the President of the Council who is of a lower status to him the Overlord? This sad situation confirms the proposed neo-Ga State Council chaired by a purported GaDangme overlord offends the principles of law and order.

Dear Media Partners

It may interest you to learn that long before the proscribed GA STATE COUNCIL came into being, the Chiefs of the 6 Ga sovereign Towns namely; Ga Mashie, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua and Tema existed as independent sovereign states. Each town had its own sovereign Stool and Paramount Chief who is fully in-charge of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of their towns and communities. However, all these powers have been taken away from and they are left with only the drudgery of pouring libation at state functions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before colonialism all the 6 Ga towns co-existed as a loose confederation of equals.

However, in times of war they come together around one trusted leader to expel external aggression. As a sovereign town, Teshie fought along Ga Mashie in the Akwamu War, the Angula War and the Katamanso War. Indeed, Katamanso was won through the bravely of Teshie Warriors. The records show that once upon a time the entire Ga State was under the leadership of the Teshie Mantse to repel an attack on Ga Mashie by Obutu aggressors hence the Teshie accolade “the premis interparios of the Ga State to wit Gonti ni ashiii see anmoo kpo.

Dear Media Partners,

You may be asking yourselves this question: What happened?

In 1927, the colonial administration imposed the Native Administration Ordinance, (N.A.O.) in the Gold Coast. Section 95 of the N.A.O. provided for the establishment of the State Councils with the mandate to regulate the powers and jurisdiction of the native tribunals. This Law imposed the Ga Mashie Mantse as the President of the Ga State Council.

The Ga State Council was given the mandate to deal with (1) the nomination, election or installation of any person as a chief (2) the deposition or abdication of any chief (3) the right of any person to take part in the election or installation of any person as a chief or in the deposition of any chief and (4) the power and authority for the recovery or delivery of stool property.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Unfortunately, this mandate was grossly abused and exploited for personal gains leading to fatalities. It would be recalled that in the case of the Teshie Stool Succession Disputed of 1941, for example, members of the panel grossly misconducted themselves by denying their own signatures to the Judgment of the Council. Again, the records show that a Teshie Mantse fraudulent used a different name from the one given by the kingmakers to swear an oath of allegiance to the Ga Mantse leading to chaos and his destoolment by the Government of Ghana in 1961.

Therefore, there was great jubilation when the State Council (Abolition) Act, 1961 [Act 85] was promulgated and replaced by the Chieftaincy Act, 1961 (Act 81). This law established the National House of Chiefs (NHCs), Regional Houses of Chiefs (RHCs) and Traditional Councils (TCs) to take over the functions of the defunct Ga State Council. Thereafter, the Chieftaincy Institution became one of the Entrenched Institutions under Chapter 270 of the 1992 Constitution.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

The Ga Paramount Stool never challenged this verdict at the National House of Chiefs or the Supreme Court of Ghana as prescribed by Law.

Therefore, what the proponents of neo-Ga State Council are trying to do after several years being caught in the web of “estoppel per rem judicata” is an attempt to overreach the 1992 Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act 2008 [Act 579]. 

Ladies and gentlemen
It is very regrettable that instead using diplomacy to woo the target Ga Towns the proponents of the neo-Ga State Council ideology are using “patapaa” and inferior gestapo tactics to enforce their hidden agenda down our throats. They have accordingly recruited militants, blogger and serial callers to attack and intimidate anyone who dare to espouse any contrary view and opinions about the neo-Ga State Council Ideology.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In their desperate attempt to attain creditability along the customary, political and diplomatic corridors of power, they have been organizing one-man shows without the involvement of the target towns and their paramount chiefs. During one of these one-man shows, the claimant of the Ga Overlord position who had been penciled to Chair the Programme under the patronage of the Vice President of the Republic Ghana, misconducted himself by handpicking a Development Chief to represent. This was a very unfortunate and insulting behaviour as the Ga Overlord claimant was fully aware that the vice President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs together with other Ga Paramount Chiefs would be in attendance. The consequences were obvious for all to see.

Dear Media Friends and Partners,

WE the Divisional Chiefs of Teshie considers this conduct of the Ga Paramount Overlord claimant as an insult and a slap in the face of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and the Chieftaincy Act 2008 [Act 579). The Constitution of the Ghana states in unequivocal terms that no power or authority under this Constitution can override or detract the functions of any of the entrenched units of Chieftaincy Institution.

Accordingly, We the Teshie Divisional Chiefs hereby pledge our full confidence and support for the 1992 Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act 2008 [Act 579] and related statutory structures as our point of reference.

Therefore, we hereby register objection and abhorrence to the neo-Ga State Council proposition as being an affront to law and order.

We shall also not support any unlawful parallel institution such as the neo-Ga State Council that has no formal or written locus or mandate and operational structures and/or parameters for ensuring transparency and accountability.

Dated at the Teshie Traditional Council this 20th Day of November, 2025.

I thank you for your distinguished audience.