The Chieftaincy Minister has defended a decision to arrest some persons claiming to be Chief and Queen mother of an African-American community at Akwamufie in the Eastern Region.

Dr Seidu Danaa said the arrest of the claimants to the Fihankra Stool is to restore lasting peace to the area and to ensure that "the right thing is done."

Goloi Osakwe Akpan and his mother, Majewa Akpan were arrested over the weekend for allegedly creating a near chieftaincy crisis in the area.

A third suspect, said to be the leader of a group of African- Americans who settled in Akwamufie in the Eastern region in 1997 was also arrested but granted bail.

Erna Terefe-Kasa, an aunt to one of the arrested persons has challenged the basis for the arrest of the three.

She told Joy News' Dzifa Bampoh the suspects were arrested for holding themselves out as chiefs, something they never did.

She explained her nephew's father had been enstooled as chief in 1997 but after he died the nephew became the "custodian of the stool and skin."

She said at no point did her nephew call himself chief of the area.

Erna Terefe-Kasa has filed a suit against the Minister of Chieftaincy as well as the Attorney General, seeking justice for what she says is the bad treatment being meted out to her family.

But the Chieftaincy Minister told Joy News the conduct of the suspects is reprehensible and if action is not taken the situation could take a turn to the worse.

Dr Danaa told Joy News nobody can hold himself out as chief "when you are not qualified to do so."

He said "if you acquire land, that is good but acquiring a land does not give you a right to be a chief."

According to him, the names as given by Osakwe Akpan and his mother Majewa Akpan are not recognised in the register of chiefs.

The decision to arrest the three is to bring peace to the area, he insisted.