Nii Odai Ntow family has no claim over Ofankor land — High Court

The Accra High Court has thrown out a claim by the Nii Odai Ntow family of Kwabenya as having title to a 12-acre land situated at Ofankor in the Ga West Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

In a judgment dated November 2, this year, the court held that the evidence on record showed that the said land belonged to one Winfred Kumah Apawu who acquired valid title from the Nii Kofi Appenteng family of Otublohum in 2014.

The court, presided over by Justice Nicholas Abodakpi, gave the judgment after it upheld a suit filed by Mr Apawu, and subsequently gave the green light for the plaintiff to recover possession of the land.

Unjustified claim

It was the view of the court that per the evidence on record, the land of Mr Apawu was not part of the land which belonged to the Nii Odai Ntow family and, therefore, the family’s claim of title to the land was not legally justifiable.

The court held that evidence from an expert from the Survey and Mapping Division of the Lands Commission which was not challenged by the defendants proved that the land in dispute was 4,000 feet away and, therefore, no where near the lands of the Nii Odai Ntow family.

The court also upheld that the basis of the Nii Odai Ntow’s family’s claim to the land, which was a 1904 judgment plan, did not indicate that the land in dispute was part of the lands which were granted in its favour by the 1904 judgment.

Again, the court held that the evidence adduced by witnesses for the Nii Odai Ntow family, the pleading in its defence, as well as the documentary evidence it presented were all at variance, leading to a multitude of discrepancies, especially regarding the boundaries of its land vis-à-vis the land in dispute.

The court further held that two statutory declaration site-plan presented by the Nii Odai Ntow family as a so-called modification of the 1904 judgment plan to include the land in dispute had no legal standing in law, as they had already been declared null and void by a differently constituted High Court in another suit.

The court also held that the statutory declaration of the site plan was “a deliberate misrepresentation of facts and contrary to Section 5 of the Statutory Declaration Act, 1971, Act 389.”

“The two declaration site-plans proffered by the defendants as a modified or modernised representation of the 1904 judgment have been absolutely discredited.

 The two site plans have no probative value, as they lack factual and scientific basis,” Justice Abodakpi held.

It was the considered view of the court that the move by the Nii Odai Ntow family to claim the land from Mr Apawu amounted to an unjustified expansion of the boundaries of the family’s land.

Consequential orders

After granting an order of possession of the land to Mr Apawu, the court perpetually restrained the Nii Odai Ntow family and the other two defendants — Solomon Tetteh and Prince Nana Ankomah — from interfering with the land.

“This court enters judgment in favour of the plaintiff on relief three — perpetual injunction.

The defendants, their agents, privies and anyone claiming through them are restrained from further interference with the land, the subject matter of this judgment,” the court ordered.

The court further awarded damages of GH¢250,000 and cost of GH¢50,000 in favour of the plaintiff, and against the defendants.

Again, the court directed the Regional Director of Survey of the Lands Commission to draw a judgment plan in accordance with the judgment of the court.

Case of the plaintiff

The plaintiff went to the High Court with a suit accusing the defendants of unjustifiably interfering with a 12-acre land at Ofankor he validly acquired from the Nii Kofi Appenteng family of Otublohum in 2014.

It was the case of the plaintiff that after acquiring the land, some people started trespassing on the land with a claim that they had acquired interest in the land and their grantors were the Nii Odai Ntow Family (second defendant) and Solomon Tettey (first defendant).

He said the third defendant, Prince Nana Ankomah, was one of such trespassers.

Writer’s email: emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh