KODWO CLELAND v. MINERALS COMMISSION

JUDGMENT

DZAMEFE, JA

The plaintiff/respondent simply referred to as the plaintiff in his writ of summons against the defendant/appellant also referred to as the defendant’s claimed for the following reliefs:

a. Declaration that the termination of the appointment of the plaintiff by the defendant is wrongful and/or unlawful.

b. An order compelling the defendant to reinstate the plaintiff to his former position with effect from the date of the wrongful termination.5

c. An order compelling the defendant to pay all the salaries and other allowances due the plaintiff from the date of the wrongful termination together with interest at the current bank rate.

d. Or in the alternate, Gh¢400,000 damages against the defendant for the wrongful and unlawful termination of appointment.

e. Any other order or orders that the court may deem fit.

The plaintiff is his statement of claim averred that until the termination of his appointment by the defendant, he was the District Officer of the Minerals Commission and stationed at the Akim-Oda office in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The defendant is a commission set up by statute to oversee the minerals and mining activities in Ghana with the Head office in Accra, Ghana.

Plaintiff averred that he was employed by the defendants as an Assistant Officer in or about January 1990 and he rose through the ranks to become the Principal Officer in about June 2010. He said part of his job schedule was to receive and process applications for the grant of mineral concessions, supervise activities of the miners and mining companies and resolve problems related to mining among others within the District.

Plaintiff averred that in the August 2009 while stationed at Assin Fosu, a group of four persons presented themselves as Four Yaws Mining Group came to his office and expressed interest in regularsing their mining activities in the area. While processing their application, the group brought in one Madam Cynthia Asantewa Osei-Kofi and introduced her as a Director who had joined them to form Four Yaws Small Scale Mining Company Limited. It is the plaintiffs case that while processing their application he had information that the company has already started blasting rocks in the concession so he took steps to stop them since they had not yet being granted the full license. He said later, the Four Yaws company brought a complaint to him about Cynthia Osei-Kofi which he helped resolved together with the owners and some elders as had bee