Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, April 10, 2014
The State Housing Company (SHC) Limited has taken a
legal step to set aside a 1994 judgement for compensation claimed by the chiefs
of Adenta, Accra led by Nii Sowah Okataban II.
Dr. Mark Nii Akwei Ankrah, MD of SHC yesterday told
the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payments of judgement debt that after
restructuring the state-owned company they realized that the claimants had not
followed the right processes to get judgement in respect of the acquisition of
Adenta lands by the government for the SHC and hence the decision to contest
the matter after almost 19 year-old.
Dr. Ankrah had been invited by the commission
presided over by Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal
because a lawyer for the Adenta Chiefs had petitioned the commission to look
into the case.
How
things Unfolded
Lawyer B.B. Quaye who is leading Nii Sowah Okataban
II was the first to appear before the commission to state that in view of the
SHC’s fresh move, his clients were withdrawing their petition and face SHC in
the law courts.
Giving a background to the matter, Mr. Quaye said on
December 14, 1994, an Accra High Court entered judgement in favour of his
clients led by Nii Sowah Okataban II against the Attorney General and the then
State Housing Corporation now SHC for the acquisition and subsequently took
steps to enforce the court’s order.
Amount
Involved
He said the court had awarded ¢600million (GH¢60,000.00)
in 1994 and after the SHC admitted liability the amount stood at ¢750million
(GH¢75,000.00) and decided to pay his clients.
“The corporation made a payment of ¢100million
(GH¢10,000.00) and pleaded with us to seek the government’s intervention
because they did not have enough money and we agreed.”
He said spite of different MDs coming into office; they
realized that the rest of the payment was not forthcoming and therefore went to
court for a garnishee order but before the Commercial Bank could pay, transferred
SHC’s money to an account in the then Bank for Housing and Construction.
“After two years, the Bank for Housing and
Construction transferred the money back to Commercial Bank. We had notice and
went for another garnishee.”
He said as a result, an order was made by a High
Court presided over by the late Justice Dwamena Tawiah for the SHC to make the
payment but they refused and the claimants decided to initiate contempt
proceedings against the company.
Mr. Quaye said just when they were initiating the
contempt action the SHC filed a motion on notice to set aside the 1994
judgement and the SHC was recently granted leave by another High Court presided
over by Justice Dzakpasu to put in a defence.
“My view is that there is no judgement. The matter
is now sub judice,” he said, adding “in all our dealings with them, the SHC has
not denied the fact that they owe us so we are surprised at the latest
development and we will meet them in court.”
SHC’s
Defence
When called to testify, Dr. Ankrah said “I have been
at the SHC for only five years and the Adenta land acquisition is one of the cases
we feel needed to be revisited.”
He told the commission the SHC engaged external
solicitors to investigate the case and they later became convinced that the
processes followed by the claimants were right and therefore decided to contest
the case.
He said that apart from the flawed processes he said
the claimants adopted, Nii Sowah Okataban II and his group had been selling the
same lands to prospective developers saying “it is not a straight forward case
of compensating the allodial owners.”
“It is wrong for anybody therefore to suggest that
the SHC does not want to pay compensation to the owners of the land acquired.”
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