A High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Dennis Adjei has dismissed an application filed by Lakeside Estate and the Nungua Stool for a review of his (Justice Adjei’s) earlier judgment which went in favour of the La Stool, Fodas Estates and SFA, for lack of merit.
The protracted Ashiyie land tussle involving the La Stool, FODAS Estates and SFA Limited as plaintiffs versus the Nungua Stool, Lakeside Estates and three others, was put to rest by a High Court ruling on 7th July, 2016 in favour of the plaintiffs.
In that case, the 1st plaintiff (La Stool) claimed that it acquired a large tract of land through war and settlement and had been in undisturbed possession of the land over 300 years ago.
The Stool described the land, which allodial title is vested in it, as stretching from its present location at La on South East, Gbatsuna, Otano, Aduman, up to what is termed the Big Pillar, stretching further to Katamanso on the far North-East, on the South-West by Roman Ridge, Kisseman and Otwoo Okuma and on the North-West by Abokobi and Adenkrebi, all measuring an approximate area of 49,420 acres or 20,000.27 hectares.
The 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs, FODAS Estates and SFA Limited, respectively, claimed that they acquired portions of the land from the 1st plaintiff in 2007 and had their conveyances stamped by the Land Valuation Department of the Lands Commission in 2011.
However, the plaintiffs were not able to register the conveyances because the lands allocated to them and some other lands in that neighbourhood had been registered in the names of Agric Cattle and Lakeside Estates (1st and 5th defendants).
Justice Dennis Adjei, who sat as an additional high court judge on 7th July, 2016, indicated unambiguously in his judgment that per his findings in the various evidences and exhibits brought before him “it is clear that the land granted to the 2nd plaintiff falls outside the 1st and 5th defendants’ claim and therefore cannot extend their land to cover the land granted to the 2nd plaintiff,”… except that a quarter of the 3rd plaintiff’s land falls within the lands belonging to the 1st and 5th defendants.
Out of the total land mass of 49,420 acres situate at La Tsui Anaa which forms part of the reliefs the 1st plaintiff sought from the court, the judge granted the 5th defendant counterclaim to some 2,911.53 acres of land by reason of its long period of stay on the land and documentary evidence to back same as against the oral or traditional evidence given by the 1st plaintiff in respect of that portion of land.
At the hearing of the review, Justice Adjei indicated that during the examination of evidence brought before the court, Lakeside Estates showed a larger portion of the land during inspection on the ground, which is more than it actually has on its own title or plan which it brought before the court.
The court stated that Lakeside Estates’ claim to a larger acre of land could not be supported by the evidence of its own title and plan brought before the court, which clearly covers the 2,911.53 acres the court had already granted it and therefore Justice Dennis Adjei’s ruling still stands and the review dismissed.
By Peter Atiemo