THE REPUBLIC v. PIUS NKUAH

Daniel Asaase Prosecuting Officer for Sefwi Juaboso District Assembly: Present

The Accused person is charged with three offences:

1. Building permits and authorised building contrary to Section 106(1) of the Local Government Act 2016 (Act 936)

2. Authorised development- contrary to Section 118(2) of Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925), and

3. Prohibition of development without contrary Section 117(2) of Act 925.

The facts of the case are that the Accused is a nurse at Juaboso Government Hospital and lives at Juaboso. That on 13th August 2021, the Works Department of Juaboso District Assembly went out for routine inspection and found that the accused had constructed a footing opposite Desert Filling Station along the Sefwi Afere road without drawings and permit and also building on part of the Assembly land and a reserved area. The accused was served with an invitation notice to produce his land documents but he did

not honour the invitation and failed to produce the document and rather continued to build and defy the order given him to stop work. That in January 2022 when the Works Department visited the site, Accused had built and about to floor it to become a multiple storey building and when he was asked to stop work, Accused said he was not going to stop and nobody could stop him. So he was charged with the .offences as stated in the charge sheet and put before court for prosecution.

Amankwaatia Essuman (PW1) who is the District Works Engineer with the Sefwi Juaboso District Assembly to support their case. The Accused gave evidence in his defence but did not call any witness.

PW1 testified that on the routine inspection by him and other officers of the Work Department in December 2020, they saw an evacuation of trench on a piece of land in-between a motor repair shop in a spare parts container on the Afere road. That they asked of the developer but the 2 shop owners could not tell them. So they left a message that the developer should report to them at the assembly and submit his permits and drawings. That the developer did not report, and that on 12th January 2021, they saw works still on-going on the site whiles returning from the timber market and reinforcement bars or starter bars had been planted in the concrete foundation. They sought for the developer and told him that his structure was within the road reservation so he could not put up any permanent structure, but temporal structures like kiosk and metal containers were