Court Cases
& Legal Disputes

The earliest documented court case involving the Abeka stool. This colonial-era proceeding, filed in the Ga Native Court of the Gold Coast Colony, concerned land rights and boundaries in and around Abeka. It demonstrates that Abeka's land holdings were already the subject of formal legal contestation before Ghanaian independence.

On 22 November 1951, Justice Jackson gave judgment ruling that the Nikoi Olai family was entitled to seven-eighths (7/8) of the compensation money from the Wireless Acquisition area in the Bubiashie area of the Mukose land. The then Asere Mantse Nii Teiko Ansah also submitted a claim in respect of this acquisition.

Nii Amon Kotei, as head of the Nikoi Olai Stool Family, claimed the Mukose land as ancestral property of his family. In 1947, members of the Abbetsewe family purported to sell the Mukose land to a Lebanese trader by deeds of conveyance consented to by the Asere Mantse. On 20 April 1948, the head of the Nikoi Olai family brought a successful action claiming damages for trespass and an injunction restraining them from selling the land. The matter was then appealed to the Privy Council of England.

A landmark consolidated case involving four suits heard together. Felix Kotei Robertson of the Nikoi Olai family sued Nii Akramah II (Asere Mantse), George Boye (Nuumo Apiakai), Winchester Tettey Boye (Nii Boi I), and others over the Mukose lands at Abeka. The case built upon the 1961 Privy Council judgment (Kotei v. Asere Stool) which had established the Nikoi Olai family's usufructuary title over the Mukose lands. Robertson claimed that as the proper persons entitled by law and native custom, only they could grant or alienate any portion of the Mukose lands at Abeka. The defendants — including George Boye and his son Winchester Tettey Boye (who had been made chief of Abeka by his father) — were Asere subjects who had been making grants and issuing receipts for land and quarries within the disputed area. Nii Akramah II was joined as Co-Defendant in all suits. Key testimony from Winchester Tettey Boye (Nii Boi I): he was born in Accra, went to live at Abeka in 1954, was made chief by the people and his father the linguist George Boye, and in 1956 served as Secretary to the Abeka Stool. He admitted that quarry receipts at Anorkuma were given out by his father. The judgment established that while the paramount title of the Asere Stool was undisputed, the usufructuary rights of the Nikoi Olai family over the Mukose lands — as affirmed by the Privy Council — remained intact. The Asere Mantse's authority alone could not override the family-level title.

The Court of Appeal (Full Bench, five justices) reviewed the Robertson consolidated suits on appeal. The court confirmed that Abeka Village and surrounding lands fall outside the Nikoi Olai / Mukose land claim, varying the 1966 judgment to expressly exclude them. W.T. Boye (later Nii Boi I, Abeka Mantse) and George Boye (Senior Linguist) were named as Respondents and prevailed.

A chieftaincy petition filed on 27 July 1976 concerning the Abeka stool. Lists George Boye (Nuumo Apaikai, Senior Linguist of the Asere Mantse) and Nii Amu I (Dzaasetse claimant from the Dodoo side) among the parties. Represents the earliest known formal legal challenge involving Nii Amu I, eight years before his 1984 Tribunal claim and 26 years before the 2002 perpetual injunction.

The Court of Appeal reversed a High Court trespass judgment obtained by the Nikoi Olai Stool Family. Nii Boi I — named in the court record as "Winchester Tete Boi of Abeka, Accra, Abeka Mantse" — prevailed as 2nd Defendant/Appellant. The court found the Nikoi Olai Mukose land boundaries "singularly very vague" and rejected the res judicata plea. Crabbe C.J. was quoted condemning the vague boundary claims as tools used to "harass people who buy land in the area." Published as [1987-88] 1 GLR 434.

Nii Amu I — styling himself "Abeka Djasetsε" — and others from the Dodoo family petitioned the Chieftaincy Tribunal claiming that, as Dzaasetse, Nii Amu I held constitutional authority to enstool and destool the Abeka Mantse. The Tribunal dismissed the application on 27 November 1984, citing the National Register of Chiefs as prima facie evidence that Nii Boi II was properly enstooled. This is the first of three consecutive court rejections of Dodoo family claims (1984, 2002, and by implication 2022).

A landmark High Court ruling: Her Lordship Mrs. Felicity Amoah granted a perpetual injunction in favour of the Nii Boi Royal Family, restraining the late Teiko Akotia Oworsika and others affiliated with the Asere Traditional Council from installing Ansah Dodoo as Abeka Dzaase. The judgment affirmed the exclusive authority of the Nii Boi Royal Family as custodians of the Abeka stool over the appointment of all traditional office-holders within the Abeka area.

The Nii Boi Royal Family obtained a landmark perpetual injunction against Nii Teiko Akotia Oworsika (alias Seth Hammond), the Abeka Queen Mother (Naa Ayeley I), and two others who attempted to install a Dzaasetse of Abeka without the authority of the Nii Boi Royal Family. The High Court declared the defendants are NOT the rightful persons to install and enstool a Dzasetse at Abeka under Ga custom, and permanently barred them and all persons claiming through them from ever doing so. Judgment in default of defence entered on 16 December 2002 by Justice Mrs. Felicity Amoah.

Dispute over 62.671 acres of Nii Boi Family land at Kuntunse, Accra. Alex Nii Boi granted the land to Damax Construction Co. Ltd in March 2004 as head of family. Damax obtained Land Title Certificate No. GA 41648 and constructed an estate, selling units to third parties. The family sued in 2014 arguing Alex Nii Boi was not the legitimate head of family. Court ruled against the family on grounds of estoppel by conduct. Judgment delivered 30 May 2022.

A major, multi-year chieftaincy dispute over the legitimate occupant of the Ga Mantse stool. As the Abeka sub-divisional stool operates under the Ga Traditional Council (via the Asere Division), the outcome of this dispute has direct implications for Abeka's traditional governance and its position within the Ga traditional hierarchy.

A petition filed before the Judicial Committee of the Ga Traditional Council in December 2022 regarding the customary validity of certain traditional installations conducted at Abeka in November 2022. The Nii Boi Royal Family referred the matter to the Ga Traditional Council for formal determination. A regent was appointed to serve in an administrative capacity pending the outcome.

A land regularisation and boundary determination matter involving the Nii Boiman area of Lapaz, Accra. Competing customary claims between the Abeka Stool and the Asere Kotopong Stool were raised in the context of a Land Commission regularisation notice issued in May 2023. The Ga Traditional Council is the responsible body for adjudicating competing customary claims in this area.

Land dispute over the Nii Boi Market area, Abeka. Nii Apiakai Boi I (Jonathan Yartey Boi) and others sued Ama Afriyie and others. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) was joined as 5th Defendant by court order. AMA applied to set aside the Amended Writ citing Section 210 of Act 936. Justice Abass Abubakari Adams dismissed the application — Section 210 does not apply where an Assembly is joined by court order rather than by the plaintiff initiative. Case continues on the merits.

The Dzaasetse and Acting Head of the Nii Boi Royal Family filed a Writ of Summons on 2 July 2026 against three defendants who have been self-appointing persons as Asafoatse, Asafoanye, Oworsika and other traditional war leaders of the Nii Boi Royal Family without authorisation. The plaintiff seeks a court declaration confirming that only he and his principal elders and kingsmen have the lawful capacity to install anyone into traditional offices of the family. The defendants have been moving around Nii Boi Town claiming they were put into office by the Kingmakers, and have been using their self-created offices to sell family properties.