[1978]DLHC1131 • February 2, 1978 • High Court
ARMAH vs. LANDS COMMISSION, ACCRA AND OTHERS
The applicant, Armah, was the absolute owner of a piece of land acquired by government in 1968 under Executive Instrument No. 85 for use as a new cemetery in Accra-Odorkor. The land vested in the Lands Commission but was not used for the cemetery. Instead, a portion including the applicant's land was leased to the respondents who began building on it. The applicant contended this was an infringement of her fundamental rights, arguing the land should have been offered back to her as the original owner since it was not used for the stated public purpose.
read moreJUDGMENT OF AMPIAH J. The plaintiff-applicant seeks by this application an order of interim injunction to restrain the second and third defendants-respondents herein, their agents, servants or workmen or both from entering the land in dispute for any purpose whatsoever during the pendency of this suit and until the final hearing and determination thereof. By a deed of conveyance dated 21 May 1958, duly stamped and registered as No. 1494/1958 with the deeds registry and tendered as exhibit 1 in this application, the applicant became the absolute owner of the land, the subject-matter in dispute. By an executive instrument, E.I. 85, issued in 1968, the applicant’s said piece of land together with other pieces of land was compulsorily acquired by the government for the purpose of a new cemetery for Accra-Odorkor. The land became thus vested in the Lands Commission, the first defendant in this case, for the intended purpose said to be in the public interest. The land thus acqui.....