Fallouts From Seizure Of ‘Stolen’ State Lands…

SECURITY CAPOS ‘DEFLATED’ IN COURT

… As Ayorkor Botchway ‘Whips’ Gbevlo And Nunoo Mensah

An Accra High Court (Human Rights Division) Judge has ruled that the attempts by operatives of the National Security to seize a land belonging to a Former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, amounted to an unlawful act and an interference with her right to own a property.

The court therefore ordered a “ perpetual injunction restraining the respondents; their successors in office, their authorized officers and servants, workmen, agents, operatives and hirelings howsoever described from entering, preventing applicant’s workmen from working on and further construction of applicant’s property and/or interfering with the applicant’s said land”.

The Judge, Uuter Paul Dery, in his ruling, slapped the respondents (Brig.-Gen Joseph Nunoo Mensah (Rtd), Lt.-Col.Larry Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd) and the Attorney General) with a fine of GH ¢3,000 for violating the rights of Ayorkor Botchway to develop, use and enjoy her land.

It would be recalled that on 15th April, 2010, while some men were working on a piece of land situate at the Ridge Residential Area belonging to Ms. Ayorkor Botchway, a group of men claiming to be operatives of the National Security stormed the area and ordered the men to stop work immediately. The operatives then erected a signboard on the land with a bold inscription, ‘GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. STOP WORK. KEEP OFF. BY ORDER’

According to court documents, “the next day 16th April, 2010, the same National Security operatives, claiming to be acting on the instructions of the 1st and 2nd respondents, visited the applicant’s property, again, and took away various construction tools belonging to her workmen with orders to her workmen to stop work, again. The applicant, by letter that same day, lodged an official complaint with the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service”.

Clearly not amused with the turn of events, Ms. Ayorkor Botchway who is the NPP Member of Parliament for the Weija constituency proceeded to the law court seeking three claims, among which included damages for wrongful and unlawful interference and violation of her fundamental human rights, and an order of perpetual injunction restraining the National security apparatus from interfering on the said land.

The case of the respondents, according to the ruling, was “that the land in issue forms part of land compulsorily acquired by government under the Lands Ordinance of 1876(Cap. 134) as such the said land is not the personal property of the President which he could dispose off without due process…”

They further contended that the MP had not demonstrated with evidence that she made an application to the President or the Lands Commission who acts on behalf of the President by filling the required form 5.

Again, it was the contention of the respondents that, the former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, deliberately failed to disclose the fact of her status as a Minister of State appointed by the President “which raises questions of conflict of interest, abuse of power, cronyism, nepotism, discrimination and favoritism.

Justice Paul Dery in his ruling on whether Ms. Botchway followed due process in acquiring the said land, he stated, “…It is the President, acting by the Chairman of the Lands Commission, who granted the land to the applicant (Ayorkor Botchway). It is, therefore presumed that all the official processes required in granting the land would be complied with by the Lands Commission”. He however added that it is not the MP who has to provide evidence “It is, rather, a person who claims that the Lands Commission did not perform its duties regularly but that person cannot be the President…”

On the contention by respondents that the MP had failed to demonstrate that the President complied with article 20(5) and (6) of the Constitution, the Judge stated, “I find this contention quite absurd for the respondents should rather ask themselves whether when the President granted the land to the applicant he did so in the public interest or for the public purpose. It is not for the applicant to show that she took the lease in the public interest or for a public purpose”

“The respondents or the current President and his government may have cause to be unhappy about the grant of the lease by the Former President to the applicant. However, that unhappiness had nothing to do with the validity of the grant. The respondents have failed to show in fact and in law that the grant was made in contravention of the due process of the law”, the Judge ruled in favor of Ms. Ayorkor Botchway.

Justice Dery in his ruling, further stated that “ IT IS ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT THE RESPONDENTS DID NOT GO ONTO THE LAND IN DISPUTE IN EXERCISE OF ANY RIGHT OF RE-ENTRY. THEY INVADED THE PROPERTY UNDER A MISCONCEPTION THAT THE APPLICANT SHOULD NOT BE ON THE SAID PROPERTY”.

Ms. Botchway was represented by Mr. Egbert Faibille of Kulendi @ Law, while Mr. Agbosu and Cecil Adadevoh (Senior State Attoreny), represented the respondents (Brig.-Gen Joseph Nunoo Mensah (Rtd.), Lt.-Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd.) and the Attorney -General).