Regional News of Sunday, 8 August 2010

Source: GNA

Court orders KMA to halt demolitions on OKESHS land

Kumasi, Aug. 8, GNA - A Kumasi High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Kwame Ansu-Gyeabour, has ordered the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to stop pulling down buildings and other structures on the Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School land.

There should also be a freeze development on all building plots by private developers on the said land.

The Court, however, granted the school's authorities unfettered access to the parcel of land where demolition has already been carried out.

The court's order followed an injunction filed jointly by the Nkontwima Busumuru Stool and 38 individuals.

They are seeking, among others, a declaration that, the government by not paying promptly after the acquisition of the stool land, by Executive Instrument (EI) in 1998, has not only breached provisions of Article 20 clause two of the 1992 Constitution but also forfeited the land acquired from the original owner.

They are also asking for an order of possession of all that "piece and parcel of land" described in the EI and an order retraining the KMA from levelling to the ground, houses on land granted to lessees of the Nkontwima Stool.

The school land has been at the centre of bitter wrangling over the decades.