The Volta Regional House of Chiefs has acknowledged that it is ‘powerless’ to resolve the protracted chieftaincy impasse in the Agave Traditional Area in the South Tongu District, as internal divisions among local chiefs continue to paralyse the traditional council and frustrate governance at the community level.
In a press release dated December 23, 2025, the leadership of the House sought to rebut allegations of corruption and collusion surrounding the gazetting of chiefs in Agave. But beneath the denials lies a worrying admission in which the House of Chiefs claims it has no control over the deadlock that has rendered the Agave Traditional Council dysfunctional.
According to the House, Agave is now split into rival factions, with some chiefs pledging allegiance to on-the-run Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV, while a larger bloc backs a rival claimant to the paramount stool. This division, it said, has made it impossible for the Traditional Council to meet or reach quorum effectively freezing decision-making in the area.
“The truth of the matter, which the publishers have again conveniently failed to disclose, is that there is a split within the Agave Traditional Area,” the House stated.
“Some chiefs owe allegiance to Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV and are in the minority, as against the majority of chiefs who are backing a rival Paramount Chief. This has led to the stalemate where the Traditional Council cannot perform its functions or hold meetings because it cannot achieve the required quorum.”
Despite growing public concern over the impasse, the Volta Regional House of Chiefs made it clear that it considers the situation an internal Agave problem which it cannot unilaterally fix.
“These are matters in Agave over which the Volta Region House of Chiefs has absolutely no control,” the statement stressed;
“Instead, it is something that falls squarely at the doorsteps of Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV and all the chiefs in Agave who are members of the Traditional Council.”
The press release was issued in response to two online publications alleging that the President of the House colluded with the Woyome brothers to gazette Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV, and that the House’s Research Department was riddled with corruption and had illegally gazetted 24 chiefs from Agave.
The House dismissed those claims as “scurrilous calumnies” and insisted that all chieftaincy declaration forms from Agave were processed in line with established procedures and directives from the National House of Chiefs, at the time when the Agave Traditional Council was not established.
“There was no way the Chieftaincy Declaration Forms of this Chief could have been processed but for the directive from the National House of Chiefs,” the leadership explained.
“There was therefore nothing special about Agave or the processing of the forms of their chief to have warranted any form of collusion.”
In an unusual disclosure, the House also accused Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV of attempting to circumvent due process by privately seeking assistance to fast-track the approval of some chiefs, who he intends to use for his personal agenda and considers loyal to him.
“While en route to Kumasi, the Vice President of the House received a telephone call from this same Togbega Xedihor Hlitabo IV seeking his assistance to virtually cut corners. The Vice President firmly told him that there was no way he would be allowed to cut corners and that a meeting of the Agave Traditional Council must necessarily be convened to approve any Chieftaincy Declaration Forms” the statement revealed.
The House’s insistence that the crisis is beyond its control underscores a broader institutional weakness: its inability to broker peace or enforce consensus in one of the Volta Region’s most contentious traditional disputes.
While the House urged the public to “disregard these malicious, self-serving and baseless publications,” the Agave chieftaincy crisis remains unresolved. A situation which has fractured the Traditional Council.
As the stalemate drags on, residents of Agave continue to bear the consequences of a traditional authority locked in paralysis, even as the highest regional chieftaincy body distances itself from responsibility for restoring order.
