Jake Loses First Round

In The Matter Of Looting Of State Bungalow

As Supreme Court Rubbishes His Complaint

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman, Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey (aka certificate-less mulatto), yesterday suffered the biggest of humiliation in his life, when the Supreme Court, by unanimous decision, threw out his motion ignorantly filed questioning the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear a case concerning his illegal purchase of a government bungalow whilst still serving as the government minister.

Nine Supreme Courts Sages led by Justice William Anaam Atuguba, in a unanimous decision, delivered the blow, which seems to have left Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey with no straw to crutch than to sort himself out with the court over the vexed issue.

The NPP chairman who had earlier undergone similar ordeal at the High Court, in the preliminary hearing of the case preferred against him by Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, (now Deputy Ministers of State), for his unconstitutional purchase of state property allocated to him as Minister of State in the Kufuor regime, as he seeks to prevent the Supreme Court from administering justice in the matter, was met with stiffer opposition, when the judges returned their ruling.

Displaying sheer ignorance of the law, the NPP Chairman claims that the two plaintiffs, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and Dr. Omane-Boamah, should have sought justice through the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), or preferably the High Court instead of the Supreme Court, which has no jurisdiction over such matters.

But the nine eminent judges, very knowledgeable in the law, however, had to school Mr. O-Lamptey on the legal implications of his action, maintaining that once constitutional matters have been raised by the Plaintiffs, the Supreme Court of Ghana has every right to interpret the constitution in matters of this kind; hence the judges undivided stance to rubbish the NPP Chairman’s claim. Somersaulting in absolute ignorance, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey seeks to lay claim to the said property, arguing that he has duly purchased it. It would be recalled that, the two Deputy Ministers in the latter part of 2008 sued the NPP Chairman over his illegal purchase of bungalow No. 2 at Mungo Street, Ridge residential area, Accra, when the latter was still a Minister of State. Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, who took the legal bull by the horn, by suing in their personal capacities, are seeking an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Chairman of the Lands Commission of Ghana and the Chief Registrar of Lands at the Land Title Registry from registering the title in the name of Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

In the writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the applicants are praying the court to declare that by virtue of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing in the previous government did not have the power to direct the sale, disposal or transfer of any government or public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey or any other person or body under any circumstances whatsoever. They are also praying on the court to order that any such direction for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute or any other public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was illegal and unconstitutional.

The applicants are seeking a declaration that by virtue of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution, the government was obliged to retain and continue to use, in the public interest, the property in dispute and insisted that by the above-mentioned constitutional provisions (articles) the purported sale of the said government bungalow, located at St Mungo Street, Ridge, Accra, by the previous government to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, clearly contravenes the law of the land.

According to the applicants, the Supreme Court should order that the purported direction by the then Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey smacked of cronyism, was arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory and a gross abuse of the discretionary power vested in a public officer under the 1992 Constitution and have pray on the court; declare that the publication by the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands which announced that the said property had been allocated to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was unconstitutional, void and must be struck out as such, since it was in contravention of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution. Additionally, the applicants are praying for an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands and their agents “from perfecting the registration of a parcel of land designated as Parcel No 29, Block 12, Section 019, in extent 1.04 acres more or less, as delineated on Registry Map No 003/019/1998, on which is situated Republic of Ghana Bungalow No 2, located at St Mungo Street, Ridge, Accra, in the name of Hon Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey”.

A statement of case accompanying the writ said Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey allocated onto himself the government bungalow in dispute as his duty post and resided at the said duty post at a huge cost to the state from 2001 to 2008, although he resigned from his public office some time in 2007 to pursue his presidential ambition.

It said in 2001, when Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, the head office of the Public Works Department carried out, at his behest, renovation to the tune of GH¢17,254 “through Brockwell Construction & Engineering Limited, not to mention further additional refurbishment carried out at his instance to his taste at extraordinary expense to that state”. According to the statement of case, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey subsequently applied to the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands for a land title certificate to effectuate what it termed “the illegal and unconstitutional transaction”.

It said the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands took the above steps to regularise the grant to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey a land certificate in relation to the said property to effectuate the purported sale of the said government bungalow and plot to him.

The plaintiffs averred that, the applicants wrote to the then Attorney-General, protesting the sale of the said bungalow, but the Attorney-General replied and pointed out that the matter was a constitutional issue.

They further argued that the then Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing did not have the power to “direct the sale, disposal or transfer of any government or public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey or any person or body under such circumstances and that any such direction for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute or any other public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey is illegal and unconstitutional”.

The nine member panel presided over by Justice William Atuguba said due to the retirement of one of their colleagues, the Chief Justice will have to re-constitute the panel and when that is done they will go into the substantive case at a date to be made known to the parties later.

The Deputy Information Minister, Hon Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa was present at court to listen to precedings that brought the said disgrace to the NPP Chairman.