Supreme Court throws Exton Cubic's mining lease review application out

The Exton Cubic Group, the mining group owned by businessman Ibrahim Mahama and whose three mining leases were declared invalid by the Supreme Court, has lost a review application challenging the apex court’s decision.

In a 5-2 majority decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah, dismissed the application.

It, however, explained that the reasons for its decision would be filed at the court’s registry.

All the five justices of the court who had unanimously declared the leases as invalid last year did not change their position, while the two justices added to the review panel upheld Exton Cubic’s case.

Justices Anin Yeboah, Julius Ansah, Jones Dotse, Samuel K. Marful-Sau and Professor Nii Ashie Kotey were on the majority side, while Justices Gabriel Pwamang and Yaw Appau dissented.

Invalid leases

On July 31, last year, a five-member panel of the apex court unanimously declared the three leases as invalid because they were not ratified by Parliament, as required under Article 268 Clause 1 of the 1992 Constitution.

The court, therefore, held that Exton Cubic had a non-existing right to those leases and, accordingly, quashed the decision of the High Court which had earlier quashed a letter from the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr John Peter Amewu, revoking the mining leases.

According to the Supreme Court, since the mining leases were obtained illegally as a result of the lack of parliamentary ratification, the logical thing was for the High Court to refuse Exton Cubic’s certiorari application challenging the revocation letter by the minister.

The decision by the court followed a certiorari application filed by the Attorney-General (A-G) challenging the decision of the High Court.

Review

Dissatisfied with the apex court’s decision, Exton Cubic filed for review.

Making a case for the review yesterday, the lawyer for Exton Cubic, Mr Osafo Buabeng, argued that the Supreme Court committed an error of law by enforcing a constitutional provision when its original jurisdiction to interpret the Constitution had not been invoked.

He argued that the A-G had invoked the court’s supervisory jurisdiction when it filed the certiorari application, but the Supreme Court could only enforce a constitutional provision when its original jurisdiction had been invoked.

Counsel further argued that the decision by the High Court had nothing to do with the merit of the leases but rather the process by which the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources revoked the leases.

He, therefore, submitted that there had been a miscarriage of justice against his client by the Supreme Court.

In his response, a Deputy Attorney-General, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, urged the court to dismiss the review application.

He submitted that the application was a rehash of the submissions Exton Cubic had presented in the original case before the apex court.

“The application makes no new argument; the applicant has failed to invoke the review power of this court,” he argued.

The Exton Cubic story

Exton Cubic was granted a long lease concession by the immediate past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government on December 29, 2016, a few days for that government to hand over power to the new government after its defeat at the polls.

The company moved heavy-duty machines into the forest near Nyinahin, with the intent to start exploratory activities, but was stopped by both the district and the regional authorities after agitations by the youth of the area.

Mr Amewu, on September 20, 2017, wrote a letter to the company, revoking the mining leases.

Dissatisfied with the revocation, Exton Cubic applied to the High Court to have the decision quashed.

The Accra High Court, on February 8, 2018, quashed the decision by Mr Amewu to revoke the mining leases.

The state, however, contested, leading to the Supreme Court’s decision in July last year.