The Mantse Ankrah Royal Family of Otublohum in Accra has enstooled the Vice Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Dr. Emmanuel Nii Ankrah, as their newly elected head of family.
The GPRTU National Vice Chair has been given the stool name Nii Okanta Ankrah II.
His installation became necessary after a long legal battle that spanned a period of more than five years.
The Mantse Ankrah Royal Family, which comprises three divisions, namely the Ankrah, Ayi, and Okanta, came together in 2018 to form a new council of elders after a protracted dispute that reared its ugly head following the death of the last head of family, Moses Okanta Ankrah, customarily called Nii Kwaku Ankrah II, in 2002.
An ad hoc vetting committee was set up in 2018 to vet persons nominated by the Okain divisions to assume the headship of the family since it was their turn after the Ayi and Ankrah sections had had their turns, respectively.
This arrangement was put in place in an arbitration led by the late Lt. Gen. J. A Ankrah then Head of State of the Republic of Ghana, with three imminent persons, namely Nene Azu Mate Korle, Justice Nii Amaa Ollenu, and Justice Azu Crabbe, in 1968 at the Osu Castle.
Just as the process to select a new family head was ongoing, a young man by the name of Edmund Arday Ankrah, who hails from the Ayi section of the family, instituted a legal action against some prominent members of the family claiming to be the new head of the family with a stool name of Nii Adjabeng Ankrah II.
The council of elders of the Mantse Ankrah family, being law-abiding, decided to put the process of selecting a new head of family on hold to battle the young man in court.
On October 30, 2023, a High Court of Accra before His Lordship Charles Gyamfi Danquah, J, in Suit No.GJ/0619/2021 delivered his judgement in favour of the family against Edmund Ardey.
Having won their case against Edmund Arday Ankrah, the council immediately set up a new vetting committee comprising three members each from the Ayi and the Ankrah sections as prescribed by the family constitution to vet the nominees that were brought forward by the Okanta section of the family.
On November 3, 2023, the vetting committee sat and vetted the two members nominated by the Okanta Section, namely Alhaji Nii Amu Ankrah and Emmanuel Nii Ankrah.
Dr. Emmanuel Nii Ankrah came up tops in the vetting and was unanimously chosen by the committee.
The committee then made their findings known to the larger Council of Elders on November 5, where Dr. Emmanuel Nii Ankrah was accepted and confirmed for all necessary customary rites to be performed for his installation.
He was placed in solitary confinement the same day at Amamomo, their family house in Accra, and brought out of confinement the next day, November 6, where an outdoor ceremony was performed and he was given a stool name as Nii OKanta Ankrah II.
A durbar is set to be organised in due course, where the family will introduce him to the chiefs and people of Ga state.