AGYEMAN VII v. NKUM AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF SARKODIE J.

The plaintiff claims against the defendants a declaration of title to a piece of land with a cocoa farm thereon situate at Mpokuampa, Bibiani and commonly called "Sahuma." According to him he shares boundaries on one side with Ekua Seguah, and on another with Kwabena Ennin. On the third side the land is bounded by the farm of Kwaku Duro and on the fourth side by the motor road from Bibiani to Abrofrem. Also he claims an order for possession, perpetual injunction, ¢20,000 damages for trespass and an order for an account of cocoa proceeds from 1969 to 1978.

The plaintiff, the Omanhene of Lower Dixcove in the Western Region, is the successor of two of his late uncles, Nyame Bobuo and Kwesi Bomua who, according to the plaintiff settled at Bibiani about 1910, obtained the land described above from the chief of Nkawie and in about 1912 made a cocoa farm on it. Since the death of the last of the two uncles in 1941, the plaintiff says he has been in possession and control of the said farm and has been paying tribute to the chief of Nkawie. The plaintiff alleges that in 1969 the second defendant drove the plaintiff's caretakers and labourers from the farm, occupied and continues to occupy the said farm to the detriment of the plaintiff.

The defendants deny that the plaintiff is entitled to his claim and say that the said land was never occupied by Nyame Bobuo and [p.522] Kwesi Bomua in 1912 or at any other time. The first defendant says he acquired title to the land in dispute by succession and he traced this through his ancestors Kobina Nketsia and Kofi Sekyi who developed the land into a cocoa farm. That Kofi Sekyi was survived by Kobina Nketsia. Upon the death of Kobina Nketsia he was succeeded by Kwame Bentum, the immediate predecessor of the first defendant. In 1947 Kwame Bentum obtained a loan of £15 from one Koomson, the immediate predecessor of the plaintiff in this case and in exchange, the said Bentum pledged the cocoa farm to Koomson for six years. Since the death of Kwame Bentum, the first defendant has made every effort to redeem the farm but the plaintiff has refused and says the farm is his own property. Owing to the attitude of the plaintiff, the first defendant entered the farm, took possession of it and put the second defendant in charge. The first defendant in his counterclaim asks for a declaration of title to the land in dispute an order for possession, perpetual injunction and ¢1,000 damages for trespass.

The plai