A-G, Lands C’ssion stopped from paying compensation

An Accra High Court has placed an interlocutory injunction on the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Lands Commission (Valuation Division), from going ahead with the payment of GHc 4,489,016, as land compensation to some unknown persons claiming to be family members of Nene Yobo Otoo Akakposu at Kasunya, in the Osudoku Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region.

The court, presided over by Justice G. A. Mills-Graves, further ordered that the said amount be deposited into the account of the courts until the land dispute was determined.

The regent of the Royal Tettiman family at Kasunya, dragged the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice before court (Land Division) seeking for the reliefs, after it had become apparent that the money was to be paid to some other claimants.

Nene Moses Otu Tettey Akakposu (plaintiff), prayed the court that the said amount be paid into the court’s accounts, until the determination of the rightful claimants.

The injunction, according to court papers cited by The Ghanaian Times, was granted on Wednesday, July 29.

In an affidavit, the deponent for Nomo Akakposu, Michael Kwablah Martey, the plaintiff, caused a writ of summons to be issued against the defendants because the matter was still pending in court.

He claimed that while the suit was pending, the defendants, especially the Lands Commission, had prepared a compensation to be paid to the family of Nene Yobo Otoo Akakposu.

“The Royal Tettiman family is not Nene Akakposu III family, and that Nene Akakposu died in 1975,” the affidavit stated.

It added that with the demise of Nene Akakposu, any claim should bear the name of the living family member, who put in the claim.

The affidavit said it would amount to disrespect if no order was made to restrain the defendants from paying the amount of GHc 4,489,016 to whoever they intended paying it to.

It also prayed the court that a copy of the order, if granted, should be served personally on Kwesi K. Bentsi-Enchil, the acting Director of the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission, also in-charge of preparing documents for payment of compensations.

The land for which the compensation has been subjected to litigation, was compulsorily acquired under the State Land (Akuse-Asutsuare Sugar Project) Instrument 1969.