Egyambra clans, families have right to practice their culture- Court tells chief
According to the court, these cultural rights are recognized by the constitution, and thus ordered the chief to allow them to perform their funerals and bury the dead at the Egyambra Cemetery.
The High Court at Sekondi, presided over by His Lordship Richmond Osei-Hwere has affirmed that families and clans of Egyambra in the Ahanta West Region, have the right to practice their culture.
According to the court, these cultural rights are recognized by the constitution, and thus ordered the chief to allow them to perform their funerals and bury the dead at the Egyambra Cemetery.
In its ruling on a motion filed by twenty (20) clan and family heads, the court, however, indicated that the above is subject to their payment of “nkae nsa” commonly called notification drink, to the chief.
The applicants asked the court to compel the chief to allow them to exercise their cultural right to bury their dead at the cemetery.
They added that having occupied the area for over three centuries, they had exercised this right without any hindrance of having to pay what is called the “nkae nsa”
However, it emerged that the ancestors of the families had at all material times paid the notification drink to a section of the royal house.
As such, in the ruling, the court further directed the gazetted chief, Nana Kofi Amoo III, not to reject the notification drink when offered, to allow the families to enjoy their cultural right, and even if he rejects, he must observe the rules of natural justice.
