[2022]DLSC11721 • May 25, 2022 • Supreme Court •
KOFI TSU ASEM (DECEASED) AND DOGBATSE (SUBTITUTED BY SYLVANUS ASEM) vs. TOGBE AHOTOR MAKAKU (DECEASED) (SUBSTITUED BY HIOB AHOTOR) AND W. N. KPORKU (DECEASED)
The dispute concerns ownership of land at Kpetoe in the Volta Region, known as Kangakpo or Gbedegugu. The plaintiffs, representing the Bedze-Agbedrafor clan, claimed ownership based on historical boundaries and prior judgments from 1951 and 1963. The 1st defendant denied ownership and sold parts of the land to the 2nd defendant who began building thereon. The plaintiffs sued for trespass and sought injunctions to stop construction. Evidence included prior judgments and a customary arbitration held in 1995 before Togbi Gagli III, which awarded the land to the plaintiffs. The defendants expressed dissatisfaction with the arbitration award.
read morePROF. MENSA-BONSU (MRS.) (JSC):- This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting at Ho, delivered on 3rd October 2018. The case arose over a failed effort at dispute resolution in respect of land situate at Kpetoe in the Volta Region of Ghana, between two families. Background and Facts The plaintiffs/appellants/respondents (simply referred to herein as ‘plaintiffs’) are the head and principal members of the Bedze-Agbedrafor clan, and they claimed that they owned land at Kpetoe, commonly known as Kangakpo. The boundaries of the land supplied by them were the following: On one side, the land was bounded by the Ho-Denu road, on another side by River Kpetoe, on a third side by the Matti Gboya and Dappah families of Kpetoe and on the last side by plaintiff’s own land. The 1st defendant/respondent appellant (simply defendant) described the same land as Gbedegugu and denied that the plaintiffs were the owners. The 1stdefendants sold parts of the land to the 2nddefend...