THE PLOT ALLOCATION COMMITTEE AND NANA OPPONG GYABENG vs. NANA OPPONG GYAN

The plaintiff, as head of the Ankamano family of Asuotiano, claimed ownership and possession of three parcels of family land originally cultivated by his ancestors. The lands had become fallow but remained in effective possession. The defendants, including the Plot Allocation Committee and Nana Oppong Gyan, implemented a town development scheme that demarcated and allocated plots on these lands without the plaintiff's consent, allegedly trespassing on family lands and allocating them to third parties. The plaintiff sought declarations of title, recovery of possession, injunctions against interference, and damages for trespass. The defendants denied the plaintiff's capacity and ownership, challenged the existence of some lands claimed, and asserted the plaintiff's family had not applied for compensation plots but had made an unreasonable demand. The trial court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, declaring title and restraining defendants from interference, leading to this appeal.

AYEBI J.A. Asuotiano must have been blessed with visionary traditional leaders who in conjunction with the people and the Town and Country Planning Department of the Dormaa District Assembly devised a scheme for the orderly development of the town. That scheme was the formation of the Plot Allocation Committee made up of members of the town led by a traditional leader. With the growth in population and expansion in size, farm lands which have become or urban land because of their proximity to the town were demarcated by the Town and Country Planning Department into residential, industrial or commercial and public plots. The Plot Allocation Committee is the body authorized to allocate plots to any beneficiary for any of the purposes a particular plot is earmarked for. By way of compensation, a family which loses its land to the scheme is compensated with a number of plots upon request. The case of plaintiff/respondent (whom I shall refer to as plaintiff) is that his family own...