Desailly Asked to Return Land Document

The Nungua Traditional Council, in Accra, has asked the Ghanaian born, French national, Marcel Desailly to return a land title certificate that was issued to him by the council and get a refund of his money.

At press conference in Accra last week by the council, Stephen Akwetey, Heir Apparent to the priestly stool, flanked by Numo Borketey Lawea Tsuru, Priestly King (Gborbu Wulomo) and other sub-chiefs, said Marcel Desailly bought 6 acres of land at East Legon at the cost of ?720 million from some chiefs of the council but unfortunately the land in question has landed in an ownership dispute.

Mr. Akwetey alleged that after the footballer had paid the council ?328 million, Nii Kotey Amli, Chief of La Bawaleshi, started the land litigation, claiming that the land sold to Marcel Desailly is part of La and belongs to him.

He said, "we would have kept quiet over the whole issue, since it is pending before a proper constituted court, but for the fact that, facts being peddled around are all false, and the implication it has for the Nungua stool and those involved is enormous.

"We have again decided to come out because of the politicization of the whole issue. This is simply because of the personality at the centre of the dispute, that is Marcel Desailly."

Mr. Stephen Akwetey alleged that, Nii Kotey Amli had teamed up with "fraudsters" to claim their ancestral land and said, "no amount of intimidation or harassment... would deter us from laying claim to that land. We will pursue our case at Tema High Court against Kotey Amli until justice is done."

The council has also drawn the attention of the La stool administrators to the pending case and appealed to them to "call Nii Kotey Amli to order".

The council said the land title certificate, has unanimously been endorsed by the whole Ga tradition as the sole document that supersedes all other documents involving land. They therefore challenged investigators investigating the case to let Nii Kotey Amli submit his land title certificate for them (the investigating team) to verify whether it is the genuine and valid document to the land in dispute.