After the Sekondi High Court presided over by Justice Akowuah had placed a limited injunction on Ghana Gas Company, restraining it from further working on the land where the gas plant is being constructed, one would have expected that the defendant would approach the Paramount Chief as ordered by the court, to settle the case, but that has not happened.
Instead, the Attorney General, Ms Marietta Brew Oppong, has hurriedly gone to the court to file a motion asking the presiding judge to vacate his earlier ruling restraining Ghana Gas from working on the land.
The AG’s argument was that the gas project was a multi-billion dollar investment and that the country would lose if the injunction was not lifted to allow the project to continue.
On the day the court placed a limited injunction on the gas project, which is said to be an antidote to the ‘Dumso Dumso’ problem confronting the country, counsel for the defendants (Ghana Gas), Enoch Aboagye, raised the same argument but was overruled by the presiding judge.
The judge, however, gave a limited injunction, instead of the perpetual one demanded by the plaintiff, to enable the parties to settle the matter.
The Paramount Chief of the Eastern Nzema Traditional Area, Awulae Amihere Kpanyile III, on April 15th, this year, filed a motion for an order of interlocutory injunction at the Sekondi High court praying it to halt Ghana Gas and four other individuals and companies from working on the land where the gas plant is being constructed.
The reason was that the defendants, which include Ernest Nunoo of Ernest Seafront Hotel, Quantum Terminal Limited, Sinopec and Ghana Oil Limited have not secured any valid lease or grant by the Paramount Stool of Eastern Nzema, to enable them work on the land where the gas plant is being constructed.
According to the Paramount Chief, Ghana Gas only came to see him, presented customary drinks and informed him of its intention to acquire the land at Atuabo for the gas project.
He continued that the company promised to come back to finalise negotiations with the plaintiff for the drawing up of a lease, but reneged on its promise, and rather, started construction work on the land. The plaintiff averred that it is only the Paramount Stool of the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council which can grant valid lease to work on Atuabo lands.
He argued that since Ghana Gas and it agents did not have any valid lease from the Pramountcy to guarantee their legal occupation of the land, the court should grant the perpetual injunction restraining Ghana Gas and it agents from carrying out any construction work on the Atuabo land.
Though counsel for the defendants, in his statement of defence, admitted that they had not legally acquired the land, his client had started negotiations, and that the Traditional Council was aware of this fact.
The defendants noted that everything done on the land had the express consent of the plaintiff. Defence counsel nevertheless prayed the court to consider the huge investment made in the project, and throw out the plaintiff’s application for the perpetual injunction.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Akowuah, in granting the order, noted that he would have granted a perpetual injunction had it not been the huge investment that had gone into the project. He, therefore, granted a limited injunction, which is to last fourteen working days.
“For the next 14 working days, don’t step on the land, and construction on the project should cease,” he warned. The court also ordered the defendants to meet the chiefs to legalise their stay on the land, otherwise, it would next time place a permanent injunction on the project.
Despite this order from the court, the plaintiff, Awulae Amihere Kpanyile III told The Chronicle via telephone yesterday that no Ghana Gas management member had approached him to discuss the issue. According to him, he had to cut short his stay in the USA and fly down to Ghana because of the Court order. He added that he was not surprised management of the Gas Company had not come to negotiate with him because ‘they think they are immune’.
He noted that if state owned company respects the order of the court, they would have come to see him for the amicable settlement of the dispute.
Meanwhile, The Chronicle has established that the AG is doing everything humanly possible to reverse the order of the court, which would sit on her motion on June 24th, this year.
A lawyer with over 30 years’ experience at the bar who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity is however kicking against the conduct of the AG.
According to him, even if the order given by the court was wrong, it still stands and valid and that the AG should have first advised Ghana Gas to comply by negotiating with the plaintiff.
He argued that if the order of the court had not been carried out but the AG had gone to file a motion for the judge to vacate his earlier orders, then Madam Marietta Brew was supporting her clients to disrespect the pronouncements made by the judge.
