The Accra High Court has granted a ten-day interim injunction restraining former Dome-Kwabenya Member of Parliament Sarah Adwoa Safo from proceeding with funeral arrangements for her late father, Apostle Emeritus Professor Safo Kantanka, pending the determination of a substantive suit challenging her authority to organize the rites.
The ruling, delivered during an ex-parte application, effectively suspends all preparations, public notices, and related activities until the court revisits the matter. Presiding over the application, the court held that the balance of convenience and the need to preserve the status quo warranted the temporary restraint, given the sensitive nature of chieftaincy customs, family succession, and ecclesiastical protocols surrounding the deceased. Legal counsel for the applicants argued that proceeding without resolving underlying disputes would create irreversible prejudice and public disorder.
The plaintiffs contend that Ms. Safo lacks the requisite locus and familial mandate to superintend the burial. “This is not about grief, it is about rightful authority and the preservation of tradition,” a representative for the applicants stated after the hearing. The defense, present in court, indicated it would file opposition papers and contest the injunction at the return date, asserting that Ms. Safo was acting within her rights as a direct descendant and in consultation with sections of the family.
Facts before the court outline a disagreement over succession, custodianship of the body, and the propriety of the proposed venue and program. Apostle Emeritus Professor Safo Kantanka, a revered theologian and founder of a prominent Pentecostal ministry, passed away recently, prompting competing narratives within the extended family on who bears ultimate responsibility for the obsequies. Court filings reference affidavits, correspondence, and minutes of family meetings, which the judge said required deeper scrutiny beyond the interim stage.
The dispute must be situated within Ghana’s broader jurisprudence on funeral injunctions, where courts routinely intervene to prevent a fait accompli in matters touching on lineage, inheritance, and customary law. Such applications test the intersection of statutory process and indigenous practice, often requiring judges to balance emotional immediacy against procedural fairness. Legal analysts note that interim relief is not a determination of merit, but a prophylactic measure to avert actions that could later be deemed contemptuous or unlawful.
The matter returns to the Accra High Court in ten days for inter partes hearing, where both sides will be expected to substantiate claims with evidence and legal argument. Until then, all parties have been directed to refrain from actions that could pre-empt the court’s final determination on who is entitled to preside over the funeral of the late clergyman.
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Source: Author: Korkor Anumu
