Accra, Aug 8, GNA - Prof Emmanuel Martey, Chairman of the Ga Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has said the long-standing chieftaincy dispute that had robbed Teshie of a chief for the past 23 years had contributed to the area's slow pace of development.

He told the people that they would be doing a great disservice to their community if they allowed their ranks to be divided by a few selfish individuals.

Prof Martey said this when he inaugurated a 12-member Dzase Committee, whose mandate is to nominate a suitable candidate for installation as Teshie Mantse. The committee, which has Nii Jerry Armah as chairman, will nominate a candidate from one of the three royal families, namely, Okpong, Ashitey and Ashikwei quarters and present him to the Dzasetse, who will in turn hand him over to the elders and people for instalment.

There has been litigation amongst the three royal families of Teshie as to which one has the right to nominate a candidate for instalment as a chief.

Last year the people of Teshie engaged the services of a committee from the Ghana Association of Certified Mediation and Arbitration (GACMA) to intervene and mediate in their protracted chieftaincy dispute and help find a lasting solution to it.

Prof Martey, a former lecturer at the Trinity College in Legon who inaugurated the committee, appealed to the people of Teshie to co-operate with the committee to help bring peace, harmony and development to the town.

He urged members of the royal families not to do anything that would destroy the peace the town was enjoying.

Mr Austin Akuffo Gamey, member of the Mediation and Reconciliation Committee, advised the people to ensure peaceful co-existence, in order to work for the forward march of the town.

Prof Kofi Quashigah, a member of the Mediation Committee, and the Acting Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Ghana, said it was gratifying to note that the Mediation, Reconciliation and Peace Process in Teshie, had been highly successful. He lauded the elders and the entire citizenry of Teshie for their maximum co-operation towards the amicable resolution of the protracted chieftaincy impasse in the town In June this Mediation success culminated in the burial and final funeral rites for Nii Akpor Adjei 11, Teshie Shikitele and Acting Teshie Mantse, who passed away on October 10, 2006. According to custom, the late chief could not have been buried if the chieftaincy dispute had not been amicably resolved by the Mediation Committee from GACMA.