Otumfuo Rules In Favour Of Comfort Dufie In Derma Stool Dispute

Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has ruled in favour of Comfort Dufie of the Ampong Family in a dispute over the Derma stool.

The ruling was delivered on Monday, October 26, 2026, when Otumfuo presided over a sitting of the Kumasi Traditional Council at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.

The dispute involved Opayin Nsiah Asare, Comfort Dufie, Opayin Owusu Ansah and Opayin Akwasi Owusu, who were contesting the stool.

In explaining the history behind the dispute, Otumfuo traced the lineage to Ntiamoah Woso, who settled in the area and brought his two sisters, Ama Ampong and Wireko Adaa, to stay with him.

However, Wireko Adaa was his father’s daughter and not his mother’s daughter, while Ama Ampong was Ntiamoah Woso mothers’s daughter.

The history was used to explain the distinction between the paternal and maternal lines of descent and their implications for inheritance of the stool.

Otumfuo stressed that inheritance is matrilineal, explaining the relationship between Ntiamoah Woso and Wireko Adaa.

“Inheritance is matrilineal, so Ntiamoah Woso and Wireko Adaa are from the father’s lineage. Ntiamoah Woso’s father’s daughter is Wireko Adaa,” he said.

The Asantehene further explained that, in the past, people believed that because the mother’s daughter and the father’s daughter lived together, the stool could be given to the father’s daughter to ascend and care for on their behalf.

He said that when a dispute arose, the traditional authorities had to establish the truth about the rightful line of inheritance.

He consequently affirmed that the Derma stool belonged to the lineage of Ama Ampong, tracing its inheritance to Comfort Dufie.

“With the Derma stool, it belongs to Ama Ampong, which traces its inheritance down to Adwoa Dufie,” Otumfuo said.

Story by: Nafisa Ibrahim