Police seek injunction against Odehye Kwasi Akuffo from parading as Okuapehene

The Ghana Police Service has requested an order from the Akuapem Mampong District Court to prevent Odehye Kwasi Akuffo, the “stool rival” of Okuapehene Oseadeyo Kwasi Akuffo III, from acting as the Okuapehene at a burial and inciting unrest in Akropong.

According to section 22 of the Criminal and other Offenses (Procedure) Act 1969, Act 30, the move was for the execution of a peace bond.

Odehye Kwasi Akuffo, the respondent, is not Okuapehene de facto or de jure, thus police are requesting a court order telling him to stop posing as one.

On Tuesday, September 5, 2023, in Akuapem Mampong Court, Chief Superintendent Sheila Kesse Abayie Aggrey Buckman moved the motion immediately after introducing herself as a prosecutor for the Ghana Police Service.

Lawyer Ansah Asare, the respondent’s attorney, reminded the court that his client had requested a prohibition order from the Koforidua High Court to halt the district court’s district court hearing on the motion that had been delivered via the registrar.

The claim that Odehye Kwasi Akuffo paraded as Okuapehene has no merit because he just dressed like a king, according to lawyer Ansa Asare, who asserted that there is no clause in the Ghanaian Constitution that forbids a royal from appearing as such.

Nevertheless, he asserted that the District Court has no jurisdiction over the matter.

He called the request to execute a bond on Odehye Kwasi Akuffo a plot to disturb Akropong’s calm.

But Sheila Abayie Buckman stood up to refute the defense attorney’s assertions, saying on the record that the Ghana Police Service’s decision to bond Odehye Kwasi Akuffo was made to uphold peace in Akropong and Okuapeman as a whole.

Her Worship Felicia Anan-Antwi, the presiding judge, decided that the request for execution of the bond should be stayed because of the prohibition order.

As a result, the court postponed the case to October 17, 2023, pending the high court’s decision.