NII ASHITEY SAASABI II VS BASHIRU IBRAHIM AGORO & ORS
2024
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- SENYO DZAMEFE, JA (PRESIDING)
- ERIC KYEI BAFFOUR, JA
- JENNIFER DADZIE, JA
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Tort Law
2024
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal, per Justice Senyo Dzamefe JA, dismissed an appeal arising from a land dispute between Nii Ashitey Saasabi II, chief of Saasabi under the Tema Traditional Council, and heirs of Alhassan Agoro. The plaintiff alleged that in August 2018 the defendants entered Saasabi lands near Oyibi with armed policemen, cleared portions, and posted a sign claiming title from Obosomase. The defendants asserted a 1977 purchase from the Aduana Abrade family of Obosomase and long possession over about 300.52 acres at Adenkesu-Dzorkpa. The High Court declared title for the Saasabi stool over 2,147.15 acres, granted injunctions and damages, and directed the Lands Commission to cancel plotting in the defendants’ name. On appeal, the Court held the chief had capacity to sue on behalf of the stool, the trial findings were supported by evidence (notably a composite plan situating the disputed land within Tema/Saasabi), and the claim was not statute barred.
DZAMEFE, JA
This appeal emanates from the judgment of the High Court Land Division Accra dated 14th October, 2022.
The brief facts of this appeal are that the plaintiff, the chief of Saasabi village under the Tema Traditional Council and the lawful Head of the Saasabi family in his statement of claim alleged that the defendants with the assistance of armed policeman entered Saasabi lands near Oyibi in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality and cleared a large portion of same. Thereafter they erected a sign post on the land claiming that they got same from the chief of Obosomase. It is his case that the land in issue does not belong to the people of Obosomase in the Eastern Region of Ghana and therefore have no right to enter the said land and to give same out to the defendants.
The plaintiff gave the boundaries of the land in dispute, drawn by the colonial government in 1904 upon the request of the Ga Chiefs between Nungua and Tema, because of the frequent boundary disputes between the people of Tema, of which Saasabi formed part, and the people of Nungua. The plaintiff averred further that the “Gold Coast Survey Pillars made in 1928 by J. Jackson also show the position of Saasabi lands to the North of Adigon and a baobab tree known as Shajo konsonkonson where Adenkesu lands meet, Kpone/Appolonia lands, Saasabi and Adigon lands.
Plaintiff said the Sasabi lands cover an area of 2147.15 acres or 874.75 Hectares. It also the plaintiff’s case that the land in issue was acquired by their great great grandfathers through hunting, farming and settlement and have been in undisputed occupation for several generations now. He said Saasabi people once took the people of Moi We Clan of Oyibi to court in respect of 491 acres of this same land when they trespassed onto it claiming its theirs and the Moi We Clan of Nungua joined as parties’ to the suit. The court, he said gave them judgment against the Moi We Clan of Oyibi and Nungua in Suit No. AL32/2006 titled, NII ASHITEY SAASABI II vrs DANIEL OKOFIO AKWEI & ORS DATED 29TH JULY 2011. A similar suit was brought by the Sasabi chief against the Paramount Chief of Kpone/Apollonia when the later caused a statutory Declaration to be made covering parts of their land in Suit No. FAL/318/14 entitled NII ASHITEY SAASABI II vrs NII NUERTEY AMORI II, APOLONIA MANCHE & 9 ORS.
The plaintiff aver further that in July 1970, the Regional Survey Department of the Greater Accra Region has done a survey work on Tema lands and have drawn