ADJETEY AGBOSU & 5 ORS. vs. EBENEZER NIKOI KOTEY & 2 ORS.

The dispute concerned portions of land within or adjoining the Ashalley Botwe area in Greater Accra. The 1st respondent family had in 1976 registered a statutory declaration over a vast tract of land described as Ashalley Botwe lands. In 1992, the 1st–5th appellants, acting for the Adjetey Agbosu/Freeman family of Sraha, and the 6th appellant, acting for the Nmai Dzorn/Okplalor Sowah Din family, attempted to register statutory declarations over portions of land they claimed belonged to their respective families, but their efforts were blocked by the respondents’ protest based on the earlier registration. The appellants then sued for declarations of title, cancellation/expungement of the respondents’ statutory declaration from the Lands Commission records, and injunction. Portion indicating this appears at the opening of Wood JSC’s judgment: “In 1976, the 1st respondent family purportedly, by means of a statutory declaration, registered in themselves, a vast tract of land commonly known as Ashalley Botwe lands… Sixteen years later… attempts… to register portions of those lands… proved futile in view of protests raised by the 1st respondent.”