BARTELS-KODWO JA
INTRODUCTION
The parties herein are both claimants to a stool in the Tefle Traditional Area in Tefle, Volta Region. When the dispute was brought to the attention of the Fiaga (Paramount Chief Togbe Nakakpo Dugbaza VIII) of the Tefle Traditional Area, he issued a summons for the parties to be brought before his customary arbitration tribunal.
In his detailed ruling, the Fiaga noted that at custom, claimants to a stool do not speak for themselves in those proceedings because they do not install or enstool themselves as occupants of a stool. Instead, the elders/kingmakers who enstooled a claimant to a stool speak to the legitimacy of that claimant's claim to the stool. This is because those who install or enstool an occupant to a stool are better placed than even the occupant himself or herself to speak to the history and customary aspects of their claim to the stool.
Accordingly, both parties were represented by elders at the customary arbitration. Following the arbitrati…