By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday,November 28,2006
AN Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday ruled that it will not restrain the government from developing the piece of land at La Wireless, in Accra for a project for Ghana’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The court presided over by Justice Victor Ofoe dismissed an application for interlocutory injunction on the development of the land situated at Cantonments, which was filed by Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru II, La Mantse.
The court, however, asked the Attorney General who had been sued on behalf of the government to sign an undertaking that the defendants will pull down the structures and return the land to the La stool should they defendants) lose the substantive case.
The court further ordered both parties to file their responses in the substantive motion for the case to be heard at a date yet to be fixed in December.
Dismissing the application, Mr. Justice Ofoe said the court considered the inconvenience that will be caused if it ordered the development to halt and added that the plaintiff failed to disclose the irrepairable damage that the refusal by the court to grant the injunction will cause him.
Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, Principal State Attorney who represented the government described the La Mantse’s application as frivolous, vexatious and without merit.
She said if the injunction was granted, the government will suffer great hardship considering the level of development and added that “the plaintiff will be compensated appropriately.”
“Invitations have already been sent to foreign dignitaries and government has invested huge sums in the project,” adding that “any injunction will cause a lot of hardship and inconvenience.”
Counsel for La Mantse, William Addo, said the government should have gone to court to review the terms of agreement covering the land if it intended to use the land for purposes other than the Wireless Station.
He said, “What they are doing now is illegal. They have also involved private people in the whole project thereby defeating the public purpose for which the land was acquired.”
In the statement of claim filed on behalf of Nii Tettey Tsuru by Peter Ala Adjetey, an Accra Lawyer and a former Speaker of Parliament on November 10, the land in question had “ceased to be used as a wireless station for which it was acquired and consequently the plaintiff is entitled to be given the first option for reacquiring the said land.”
The statement said that the land belonged to the La Stool and the La Mantse was the lawful person to litigate.
It said, under Article 20 clause (5) and (6) of the constitution the government should have proceeded to allocate portions of the land for development to various entities or for development by government’s own agencies for purposes other than what it is intended to do now.
It said that if the government went ahead to develop the land it will ‘result in defeating the title and interest of the La Stool.”
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