POKU v. AKYEREKO AND OTHERS

The plaintiff and the first defendant are both natives of Teppa in Ashanti, and the land the subject-matter of this appeal is a building plot situate in the town of Teppa. The plaintiff brought his action in the then Native Court of Teppa claiming a declaration of title to the said building plot of land and an order for possession.

The plaintiff's case was that sometime in 1954 the land in dispute was granted to him by the Odikro of Teppa for building purposes and for the said grant he gave the Odikro the sum of four pounds (£4) and a bottle of gin by way of customary acknowledgement of the grant. He then at the request of the Odikro paid him a further sum of ten shillings which the Odikro said was to be paid to the local council.

The Odikro in his evidence said he paid this money to the third defendant, a revenue collector for the local council, on whom the Odikro directed the plaintiff to call for a receipt. According to the plaintiff he later, at the demand of the third defendant, paid a further sum of one pound (£1) to the third defendant in respect of what was described as "sanitation fee." The third defendant subsequently refused to give the plaintiff a receipt for the moneys paid. The Odikro in his evidence said that when he enquired of the third defendant the reason for his apparent refusal to issue out a receipt for the sum paid by the plaintiff the third defendant told him that he had allocated the plot in question to the first defendant and he could not therefore issue any receipt to the plaintiff. Meanwhile the Odikro and the chairman of the local council had appended their signatures to a plan [p.287] of the building the plaintiff proposed to construct. On this plan the words "approved by" followed by the signature of the chairman of the council, and the words "granted by" written against a delineation of the plot of land in question followed by the Odikro's signature.

It appears that, by reason of the power of management of stool lands vested in the local council by section 72 (1) of the Local Government Ordinance,1 some arrangement existed between the Odikro and the local council for the disposal of stool lands, particularly building lands in the town of Teppa. There is however a conflict of evidence as to the precise working details of this arrangement. According to the Odikro if any person wanted land on which to build that person saw him (the Odikro) and his elders, and when a grant was made the grantee gave the usual "customary drin