Finali Limited wins Supreme Court case against Numo Nmashie family

The attempt by the Numo Mmashie Family to take over part of the Airport Hills Lands as well as some seventy towns and villages from Peduase to the Gulf of Guinea suffered a fatal blow in the Supreme Court on 30th November 2016.

The Supreme Court in its ruling on 30th November, 2016 on an Order of Certiorari in the case Republic versus High Court (Land Division), ex parte Finali Ltd, (Nii Adjetey Akuffo – Interested Party), granted Finali’s application for certiorari and quashed both the writ of possession dated April 5 2016 and the order to the Ghana Police Service to give assistance to the Interested party (the Numo Nmashie Family) both issued by the High Court (Land Division) in favour of the Numo Nmashie Family to execute the writ of possession over seventy towns and villages stretching from Peduase to the Gulf of Guinea.

Finali’s Application for Certiorari became necessary when in July 2016 Airport Hills was badly disturbed by a large aggressive crowd comprising the Numo Nmashie Family agents and supporters who entered onto part of Finali Ltd’s Airport Hills land claiming that the High Court, Accra (Land Division) had granted them a writ of possession to take over seventy (70) towns and villages in a map of towns and villages, covering from Peduase in the Eastern region through Legon to the spintex Road (Marty Tsuru) and beyond to the Gulf of Guinea.

What led to this case was that following the compulsory acquisition of the land situate in Adjancote in 1973 for a television station for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation under the State Lands Act of 1962, rival claims for compensation were made by three claimaints including the Numo Nmashie Family. The Land Court Accra declared the Brekusuhene, one of the rival claimants as entitled to be paid compensation.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal, on 15 December 1982 held that the Numo Nmashie family had established a better claim to the payment of compemsation for the land compulsorily acquired for the television station for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation at Adjancote.

Some thirty four years later, that is on 12 February 2016, the Numo Nmashie Family went to the High Court, Accra (Land Division) claiming that by reason of the Court of Appeal decision which held that the Numo Nmashie family were better entitled to be paid compensation for the land compulsorily acquired for the television station for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation at Adjancote it was entitled to recover possession of not only Adjancote but also seventy villages and towns from Peduase to the Gulf of Guinea. These villages and towns included The towns and villages include Peduase, Obuom, Nsakye, Agyemanti, Brofesa, Brekusu, Teiman, Papao, Ogbodzo, Mpehuasem, Otinshi, La-Bawaleshie, Agiringanor, Okpoi Gonno, Oyarifa, Pantan, Ashonman, Agbogba, Adenta, Madina, Nkwatanang, Ashale-Botwe, Martey-Tsuru, Teshie and Kpeshie Ridge. The High Court therefore granted the Numo Nmashie family an order for a writ of possession to issue to enable it recover the seventy villages and towns listed by the Numo Nmashie family.

It was on the basis that the Numo Nmashie family with the assistance of the police, who were directed by an order from the High Court, drove in bulldozers to demarcate and sell Finali’s land to anybody who was willing to buy the land.

Finali Ltd on 4/10/2016, applied to the Supreme Court for an order of certiorari to quash the writ of possession issued by the High Court (Land Division), Accra; an order of certiorari to quash the order directing that the Ghana Police Service assist tthe Numo Nmashie Family to execute the Writ of Possession. In the court papers filed on behalf of Finali Ltd, it explained that since the Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the Numo Nmashie Family in the matter of the land acquired for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Television Station at Adjancote, did not grant recovery of possession of any property, the order by the High Court in February 2016 granting the Numo Nmashie Family to leave to issue a writ of possession to recover the land which the Numo Nmashie family were claiming was null and void. Finali argued further that the order by the High Court, Accra (Land Division) to the Ghana Police Service to assist the Numo Nmashie family to execute the writ of Possession was also null and void. Finali Ltd therefore asked the Supreme Court to set aside the order granting the Numo Nmashie Family leave to issue a writ to recover the land they were claiming. They also asked the Supreme Court to direct the Ghana Police Service not to give any further assistance to the Numo Nmashie Family in their attempt to wrongfully take over Finali’s land.

In its unanimous decision given on 30 November 2016, the Supreme Court said that it was wrong for the High Court, Accra (Land Division) in February 2016 to make the order enabling the Numo Nmashie family to recover possession of any land in respect of the Adjancote, a writ of possession the land acquired for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Television Station at Adjancote, since the Court of Appeal did not grant recovery of possession of any property in favour of the Numo Nmashie family. The Supreme Court ruled that it was wrong for the High Court to issue, the process for recovery of possession because the High Court did not have jurisdiction to do so. The Supreme Court decision therefore rendered the writ of possession null and void and the entry of the Numo Nmashie family into Airport Hills lands under the writ of possession from the High Court wrongful and unlawful.

The Supreme Court therefore quashed as null and void the orders of the High Court, Accra (Land Division) and granted Finali’s application.