[2004]DLSC965 • May 5, 2004 • Supreme Court •
AGBOSU AND OTHERS vs. KOTEY AND OTHERS
In 1976, the first respondent family registered a large tract of land known as Ashalley Botwe lands by statutory declaration. Sixteen years later, the appellants (plaintiffs) attempted to register portions of these lands as belonging to their respective families (Agbosu Freeman and Nmai Dzorn) but were unsuccessful due to protests by the first respondent (defendant). The plaintiffs, as heads and principal elders of their families, instituted proceedings seeking declarations of ownership, cancellation of the 1976 statutory declaration, and injunctions against interference with their land rights.
read moreJUDGEMENT Wood JSC Delivered the first judgment at the invitation of Kpegah JSC. In 1976 the first respondent-family purportedly, by means of a statutory declaration, registered in the name of the family a vast tract of land commonly known as Ashalley Botwe lands. Sixteen years later, attempts by the first to fifth appellants on the one hand, and the sixth appellant on the other hand (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiffs), by means of the same process, to register portions of those lands as belonging to their respective families, ie Agbosu Freeman and Nmai Dzorn, proved futile in view of the protests raised by the first respondent (hereinafter referred to as the first defendant). Clearly dissatisfied with this turn of events, the plaintiffs instituted proceedings in the High Court in their respective capacities as the head and principal elders of their families, inter alia, for the following reliefs: “(a) that the first, second, third, fourth and.fifth plaintiffs are.....