ABENA GYABEA & 2 OTHERS v. KWAKU YEBOAH & 3 OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

DZAMEFE, JA

The plaintiff/appellant issued this writ at the High Court, Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana against the defendant/respondent for the following reliefs:

Declaration that the plaintiff’s immediate maternal family owns all that piece and parcel of land, lying, situate and being at “ANYINASU” and which said land shares common boundary with Nana Kwaku Kumah (dec), Nana Kwame Donkor (the late Asikasuhene), Maame Afia Gyamaa (dec) and the “Anyinasu” stream

An order of perpetual injunction

Further orders

General damages for trespass

The three plaintiffs are farmers at Asikasu No.1 in the Dormaa Central Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region while the 1st defendant is a mechanic and the two others are farmers.

The 1st plaintiff avers in his Statement of Claim that the land in dispute was acquired by her maternal grandmother by name Abena Gyabeah, together with his uncles Kofi Yeboah and Kwaku Boah jointly in its virgin state about 90 years ago. This land he said is situate and lying at a place commonly known and called “Ayinasu” near Asikasu on the Dormaa Stool land.

It is his case that his maternal grandmother and the two uncles mentioned earlier reduced the land into a cocoa farm and shared boundary with the properties of Agya Kwaku Kumah (decd), Nana Kwame Donkor (decd), the late Asikasuhene and Maame Afia Gyamaah’s (decd).

The plaintiffs aver further that the three, Obaapanyin Abena Gyaba and two uncles during their lifetime enjoyed the proceeds from their farms on the disputed land without let or hindrance from anybody or any quarter whatsoever till 1983, thereabout when the nationwide fire outbreak burnt and destroyed the entire cocoa trees.

Plaintiff said they later rehabilitated the farm and for several years the late Obaapanyin Abena Gyabea continued farming on the land in dispute till 2013 when the defendants started laying adverse claim to the said land by cultivating same. Wherefore the plaintiff’s claim the reliefs endorsed on the writ of summons.

The defendant/respondents in their statement of defence aver that 1st plaintiff is deceased and the 2nd plaintiff lives at Kruen at all material times of his life and had no farm at Asikasu No.1. It is the defendant’s case that the land in dispute was originally acquired many years ago in its virgin state by Okomfo Asenua who was the wife of the late Chief of Asikasu, Nana Kwame Donkor, the founder of Asikasu.

The defendants say they are maternally related to Nana