The legal battle involving the alleged fraudulent acquisition of land by Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Zoomlion, has intensified as the Nungua Families (plaintiffs) have filed a motion to injunct the alleged sale of the land.
The plaintiffs had sued the company for trespassing on their land situated at Borteyman in the Greater Accra Region.
The suit makes several allegations against the company, including allegedly backdating documents of ownership in a bid to unlawfully dispossess them of the land without recourse to the Nungua Development Fund, which is holding it in trust for the people of Nungua.
Few weeks ago, a Turkish company based in Ghana, Arsan Group, accused Ghanaian businessman Joseph Siaw Agyapong, Founder and Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, including Zoomlion and Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd., of allegedly using landguards and rogue elements of National Security to attack and destroy their residential property development in Borteyman, a suburb of Accra.
In the latest legal filing, the plaintiffs have made a further claim of fraud against Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd., this time, accusing it of forging the signature of a signatory to the alleged land purchase.
Acting Nungua Mankralo, Nii Borlabi Sam Prempeh, in an affidavit in support of the application for injunction, emphatically states that he did not sign a sub-lease as a witness for the lessors, and that his name and signature were fraudulently procured.
Nii Borlabi Sam Prempeh avers that a copy of sub-lease dated August 16, 2010 executed between Prof. Dr. Noble Odaifio Wulentsi (Nungua Mantse) and Gborbu Wulomo as lessors of the one part and Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. as lessee of the other part, has been brought to his attention with his name and signature appearing on it as witness for the lessors.
However, he states categorically that, “I did not sign the aforementioned sub-lease as a witness for the lessors.”
He further states that, “My name and signature was fraudulently procured in that I did not personally sign the sublease as a witness for the lessors named therein.”
The affidavit sworn to under oath adds that, “the aforementioned sub-lease was procured by fraud.”
He is therefore praying the court to grant the application and issue the injunction against Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. and the other plaintiffs.
This latest allegation against the company raises serious legal issues with bitter consequences, as forgery is a second degree felony punishable by a prison term if proven in court.
Suit
Some families from Nungua have filed a suit against Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd., a sister company of Zoomlion, for trespassing on their land situated at Borteyman in the Greater Accra Region.
The suit accuses the company of allegedly acquiring the land with documents which were fraudulently backdated in order to unlawfully dispossess the rightful owners – the Nungua Development Fund, which is holding it in trust for the people of Nungua.
Court documents contend that the plaintiffs have made several demands on Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. to vacate the disputed land to no avail, and by their conducts, the company has manifested a clear and unequivocal intention to dispossess the people of Nungua, including the plaintiffs, of their beneficial interest in the disputed land unless stopped by the court.
Particulars of Fraud
The suit avers that the Nungua Development Trust’s name appears in the records of the Lands Commission first in time as proprietor of the disputed land by virtue of a deed of assignment from the Nungua Stool to the Nungua Development Trust dated October 4, 2010, while the name of Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. appeared second in time as proprietors of the disputed land on August 16, 2010.
It avers that the Nungua Development Trust was the registered proprietor of the disputed land before Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. submitted its “documents clearly backdated to 16/8/2010 concerning the same disputed land for registration and/or plotting at the Lands Commission.”
It states that Sino Africa Development Co. Ltd. did not acquire the disputed land from the Nungua Development Trust, being the registered proprietor of the land, and yet it caused its name to be plotted in the records of the Lands Commission as proprietor of the disputed land.
The suit further avers that the company has constructed an office building with a fence along the northern boundary of the disputed land even though it knows that it did not acquire the said land from the Nungua Development Trust, the proprietor of the said land.
Thuggery
According to Arsan Group, their flagship project, consisting of over 400-unit residential development in Borteyman, which is meant to bring over $135 million in foreign investment into the country and create an excess of 1,500 jobs over the course of the development, has been fraught with repeated attacks and sabotage by persons they believe to be linked to Zoomlion and Mr. Siaw Agyapong.
Agents for Arsan claim that over the past three years of operations in Ghana, their site in Borteyman has been attacked several times during the night by dozens of armed men, some of whom claimed during the raids to be from National Security, thereby rendering Arsan’s security services helpless to the attacks.
Despite several petitions for security assistance, it allegedly seems that there is some party with obvious ‘connections’ to the country’s security agencies that are working to frustrate the project, according to them.
Despite having a legitimate title and court ordered ownership of the land, some unknown persons who repeatedly claimed that the whole area belongs to Mr. Joseph Agyapong Siaw of Zoomlion, have persistently attacked the project, most recently of which was on March 26, 2025, destroying property worth millions of dollars.