Joseph Siaw Agyepong
The Chief Executive Officer of Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, popularly known as Jospong, and three others have been dragged to court for flouting the orders of a High Court in Accra by entering a land that they have been restrained from entering.
An affidavit in support of the motion for contempt accuses the respondents of hiring thugs to destroy properties of the applicants on the disputed land despite the existence of a court order and a penal notice which was duly served on the respondents and acknowledged by them.
The application, filed before a High Court in Accra by Royal Bell Investment Ltd., Terraform Development Ltd., Nii Adzogah Annang Laryea, Nii Asafoatse Okum Agyemang II, Richard Nii Alabi Bortey and Benjamin Borketey Borteye Seysey, avers that Jospong and the other respondents “would not abate their contemptuous conduct unless they are convicted and punished by imprisonment by the Honourable Court.”
The respondents are Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Gabriel Forceby, Gloria Benneh and Sino Africa Development Ltd.
The affidavit in support avers that the court, in its final judgement on November 16, 2023, “declared title in the land in dispute therein in our favour and perpetually restrained the 4th respondent herein (Sino Africa Development Ltd.), its agents, assigns, servants, privies, workers, independent contractors or any other persons claiming through it or authorised by it from entering, developing, occupying or interfering in any manner with the land in dispute.”
Dissatisfied with the judgement, Sino Africa appealed against the decision at the Court of Appeal, an appeal which they lost as the court entered judgement in favour of the applicant in the contempt application, affirming the decision of the High Court.
The applicants subsequently filed a penal notice on December 5, 2023, and caused same to be served on the respondents herein, among others, by substituted service by the order of the High Court.
The application avers that despite the order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and the service of the penal notice on them, the respondents continue to breach the orders of the court.
It avers that in February 2024, the respondents with their security men forcibly entered and invaded a portion of the land belonging to Royal Bell Investment and Terraform Development Ltd. in an attempt to eject them and occupy the land, but were prevented by the police upon complaint.
It further alleged that Gabriel Forceby, led by a police officer identified as Shaibu from the Lakeside Police Station on December 16 and 17, 2024, stormed the construction site of Royal Bell and Terraform and ordered the workmen to stop work, and also arrested the foreman on the site based on a complaint made by Forceby.
It also points out that the respondents on December 18, 2024 held a press conference at their Borteyman office, opposite the land in dispute, calling for the assistance of the general public, the Ghana Police Service and the government to intervene and prevent the applicants’ workmen from occupying and working on the land.
“That the respondents have also stationed their security men on the land and at the gates leading to the applicants’ land and have been preventing them and their grantees from entering and having access to their buildings, they have been forcibly fenced round by the respondents,” the motion further avers.
It also avers that two days to the delivery of the judgement of the Court of Appeal on March 27, 2025, affirming the judgement of the High Court, Jospong, Forceby and Benneh at midnight, sent thugs and land guards to demolish almost the entire front fence wall of Royal Bell and Terraform’s gated construction site yard, the site office building, buildings being occupied by the caretakers and workers, the warehouse full of building materials, and several uncompleted structures being developed on the land by the two companies and their development partners (Arsan Group of Turkey), a report of which has also been made to the police.
Again, the motion states that after the Court of Appeal judgement, Royal Bell, Terraform and their partners and contractors commenced reconstruction of the part of their fence wall demolished by the respondents.
It further alleges that at the instance of the respondents, the police again on April 11, 2025, invaded the portion of the land occupied by Royal Bell, Terraform and their caretakers who have been living on the land for over 25 years and workers, threatened them with death, forcibly drove away all of them and warned them to never enter the land and work on the project.
It adds that the respondents claim to have been granted an order of stay of execution by the Court of Appeal on May 28, 2025, and are “attempting to rely on same to enter our land, demolish our structures and occupy same.”
“That I am advised by our lawyer and I verily believe to be true that the conduct of the respondents is in blatant breach of and disrespect to the judgements and orders of the court, undermines, interferes and infringes on the authority of the court, and the smooth administration of justice; and is therefore contemptuous of the Honourable Court.”
Meanwhile, the High Court has granted an application by the applicants to serve the respondents with the contempt motion through substituted service.
A Daily Guide Report