ACCRA POLYTECHNIC v. OLIVIA EJIMANDUS

I deem it necessary to mention that the instant action was instituted against two defendants but plaintiff, in the course of this proceedings, discontinued the action against the first defendant. In effect this action was fought between the plaintiff and second defendant and for purposes of this judgment I will refer to second defendant simply as defendant.

The plaintiff is an educational institution created by statute, that is, Polytechnics Act, 2007 (Act 745). Before the creation of Accra Polytechnic, it used to be Accra Technical Institute.

By operation of law, all assets and liabilities of Accra technical institute devolved on Accra Polytechnic.

On or about 6th September 1960, per Exhibit ’A’, a Certificate of Allocation, the Government of Ghana acting per its lawful agent the then Lands Department confirmed by way of certifying the allocation of land the size of which was 2.55 acres to the Ministry of Education as a site for staff housing for Accra Technical Institute.

It appears that portions of this land was developed into bungalows for the staff of plaintiff. However, in 2004 plaintiff embarked upon not only rehabilitation of the facilities on the land but also construction of fence wall to prevent encroachment.

It was then that plaintiff claims it discovered that defendant was carrying out her business as a restaurant and drinking bar operator on a portion of the land.

Consequently, plaintiff wrote a letter dated 5th October 2004, Exhibit ‘B’ in which defendant was informed that she had without the permission or consent of plaintiff encroached on portions of lands forming the Polytechnic properties and defendant was therefore requested to move out of the property on or before Friday, 5th November 2005.

To Exhibit ‘B’, defendant responded per Exhibit ‘C’ and for its full effect I crave indulgence to quote it in extenso.

“Dear Sir/Madam,

RE-ENCROACHMENT ON LAND

AT CANTONMENT

Your letter No. AP/SEC/APP/VOL 1 dated October

5th 2004 refers

I write this in response to the above quoted letter and wish to state that, it is true that I did not have your consent before going into occupation of your land in question.

Sir, I sought and obtained the consent of Mr. Addo who

is a member of your staff in the year 2001 when he was sick in

the house.

I am pleading with you to forgive me for not officially informing the appropriate authorities before going into occupation of the land.

I would be grateful if you could allow me to stay on the

land t