Senior law lecturer at the University of Ghana-School of Law, Lawyer Kwame Gyan has stated that persons who bought land from Numo Nmashie Family of Teshie cannot lose their lands.

Speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban the legal practitioner explained that the recent Supreme Court ruling on the 72,000 acres of land in the Greater Accra region does not mean land owners will automatically lose their lands.

“In the law, if you acquire land from a party and subsequent to your purchase there is litigation which sort to impugn the person that gave you the land and your grantor loses the land in the court, what happens is you generally should not lose your land. Because the person who gave you the land has lost in court.

“So what the Supreme Court has done is to say those who got their land from the Numo Nmashie Family and their source of their land is fraudulent so any product of the fraud cannot stand. Because the Supreme Court even in the clarification in November said that all the registrations in respect of transactions which have been done by Numo Nmashie Family should elapse and expunge from the records of the Land Commission,” Lawyer Gyan stated.

According to him, the Supreme Court indicated that those who got the land from the Numo Nmashie Family must go to the proper persons and have tenancy with them. Atone

He added that the Supreme Court also stated that the areas mentioned are however owned by different families and land buyers must to the proper and rightful owners and have tenancy with them and not only the Bio Stool.

“So it is going to be the case that whatever registration that any person who got land from the Numo Nmashie Family would have elapsed by the land Commission. Now the Supreme Court says all the people and institutions that have gotten lands from the Numo Nmashie Family cannot and shall not be dispossessed.

“So that fear of the widespread loss of lands arising from this case should not happen. Because the Supreme Court says no one that has obtained land from the Numo Nmashie Family should be dispossessed or can be dispossessed. So taking their land from them is not on the table,” the senior law lecturer reiterated.

Background

The Supreme Court has reiterated that the Numo Nmashie Family of Teshie in the Greater Accra Region cannot assert ownership of 70 villages spanning over 72,000 acres of land.

In its recent clarification, a five-member panel led by Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo upheld that the family’s claim was invalidated due to fraudulent information presented to the Court of Appeal in 1982, which had previously declared them as owners of the land.

Consequently, the court instructed the Lands Commission to remove all registrations and certificates issued to the Numo Nmashie Family of Teshie and the Tetteh Olewolon Family regarding the 72,000 acres.

The villages affected by the decision are Peduase, Obuom, Nsakye, Agyemanti, Brotrease, Danfa, Adoteiman, Otinibi, Malidzano, Okyrekomfo Kotei, Taboadidi, Ayim, Adenkrebi, Abefia, Ayimensa, Kweiman, Odonkorkurom and Kwadwokurom.

Others are Otiakurum, Otopram, Brekusu, Kponko, Dedekurom, Sesemi, Teiman, Papao, Ogbodzo, Adaman, Mpehuasem, Otinshi, Otanor, La- Bawaleshie, Tesa, Adjiringano, Okpoi Gonno, Manmormo, Oshiyie, Amanfro, Bobamase, Abokobi, Nyamekurom, Oyarifa and Ogoha.

The rest are Ajangote, Akpomang, Boi, Pantang, Sempene, Frafraha, Apenkwa, Abladdzei, Ankome, Ashonman, Agbogba, Adenta, Otuwa, Madina, Nkwantanang, Ashale-Botwe, Atwuo-Okuman, Martey Tsuru, Gbatsuma, Okpegon, Ablekuma, Odediben, Agbleshia, Alegon, Mangoase, Teshie and Kpeshie Ridge.