The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed claims by the Numo Nmaishie family of Teshie for the ownership of over 72,000 acres of land in Accra East which comprises about 70 townships and villages in the Greater Accra Region.
The court presided over by Justice John Dotse restored an earlier court order in 2011 which indicated that the disputed towns and villages and their adjourning lands are not under the authority of the Numo Nmaishie family.
The communities under dispute include Madina, Adentan, Oyarifa, Adjankote Hill, East Legon, North Legon, Patang area, UPSA area, Ashesi Univeristy area, Adjirigano and others.
The court further directed that the name of the Numo Nmaishie Family be deleted from the records of the Lands Commission as being owners of the lands afore-declared as not forming part of the Numo Nmaishie family land.
Background
What started as a compensation claim has led to this dispute seeking a determination of whether the Numo Nmaishie family of Teshie are owners of 70 villages and towns and land which they claim covers over 72, 454.09.
This follows the state acquisition of 25.031 acres of land on Adjankote Hill by the government of the National Liberation Council which numerous claims were pursued for compensation.
The State Land Tribunal, set up and chaired by Abban J. declared the chief of Brekuso Nana Adu Mireku III as entitled to compensation against the Numo Nmaishie family of Teshie and the Dowouna family of Osu.
The Nmaishie family then mounted an appeal against the decision in suit No. CA 49/80 as reported in the case of RE: Adjankote Acquisition; KLU Vrs Agyemang III.
The then court of appeal decided that the Numo Nmaishie family and their grantees and licensees owned the lands and villages almost contiguous to the 25.031 acres of land compulsorily acquired by the state at the Adjankote Hill area and as such they were entitled to compensation from the government for the acquisition.
The decision by the Court of Appeal that the Nmaishie family were owners of the land contiguous to the acquisition area therefore firmed that the seventy villages and land covering about 72, 000 acres which were contiguous to the acquisition area also belong to them.
The Plaintiff argued that the judgement of the court of appeal was procured by fraud, principally because the court was misled in relying on a composite plan which listed 70 villages and towns as belonging to the Numo Nmaishie family.
For the plaintiff, most of those villages do not belong to the family yet but they misled the court and appointed a surveyor at the time to prepare a composite plan to include those villages.
Source: Ghana News
