IBRAHIM AZABU JANGA v. SCANCOM LIMITED & ORS
June 24, 2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- V. D. OFOE, JA (PRESIDING)
- J. BARTELS-KODWO (MRS.), JA
- S. R. BERNASKO ESSAH (MRS.), JA
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
June 24, 2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This appeal from the High Court concerns land rights and authority to alienate land in the Janga Traditional Area of Ghana. The appellant, head of the Kurinyina Dana Azabu family, sought a declaration of title and remedies relating to a booster pole erected near the Fongni-Janga market. He asserted longstanding family occupation and that under custom, families must consent to grants of cultivated land. The 3rd defendant (a local chief under the Nayiri) denied the family’s ownership claims and maintained that chiefs control grants for development. The Court of Appeal, applying Ghanaian appellate standards, affirmed the trial judge’s findings: the appellant failed to prove the land’s identity by establishing all boundary owners; families have usufructuary interests but chiefs (the Nayiri and sub-chiefs) alienate land for development within settlements; references to research were supportive only. The appeal was dismissed, leaving the 3rd defendant’s grant to the 1st and 2nd defendants undisturbed.
V. D. OFOE
The Plaintiff/Appellant herein after referred to as the plaintiff sued the Defendant/Respondents, Defendants for short, for:
“i A declaration of title to all that piece or parcel of land located at Janga in the West Mamprusi District of the Republic of Ghana near Kanbonaba’s house at Fongni-Janga and bounded as follows: On one side with Naabunpoosa family land, On the second side with Jandan Andani’s family land, On the third side with Liman’s family land and on the last side Afa Mahi’s family land.
ii. A declaration that 3rd Defendant is not the rightful owner of the land on which the 1st Defendant had constructed its booster pole which it later on handed over to the 2nd Defendant for management and operation.
iii. A declaration that Defendants trespassed onto Plaintiff’s family land when Defendants constructed a booster pole on the aforesaid land without the consent and permission of Plaintiff’s family.
iv. An order directed at Defendants to remove the said booster pole and in the alternative Plaintiff be at liberty to demolish and remove the said booster pole and the cost of such removal be surcharged on the Defendants.
v. An order directed at Defendants to compensate Plaintiff for the period that Defendants has trespassed onto Plaintiff’s family land.
vi. Damages for trespass.
vii. Cost”.
Tersely put his story supporting these claims is basically that in the Janga Traditional Area of the West Mamprusi District land is owned by families and not chiefs for which reason any transaction involving land in the Janga Traditional Area must be done with the ultimate consent of the head of family of the particular family land. He is the head of the Kurinyina Dana Azabu family which is the freehold or usufructuary owner of land in Fongni-Janga in the West Mamprusi he described in paragraph 6 of the statement of claim as follows:
“ On the one side with Naabunpoosa family land, on the second side with Jandan Andani’s family land, On the third side with Liman’s family land and on the last side Afa Mahi’s family land”
His family members have settled on part of this disputed land exercising acts of ownership over this land for more than 400years. Having been recognized as the owner of the said land when the West Mamprusi District Assembly wanted to build a market on part of this land his family was consulted and it consented. Another evidence of their ownership of the land is a collapsed building put up by one of its family members near the marke