An Accra High Court has ordered Osprey International Limited to appear before it to answer questions on payment for 5,038 acres of land situated at Sege in the Greater Accra Region.
The said land is said to be part of the land acquired by the Ministry of Works and Housing as part of the land banks for the construction of safe, decent, secured and low-income affordable housing units for the people of Ghana.
The court said: “The managing director or his accredited representative must be in court to answer any questions on the accounts…, The fourth defendant is to consider this order urgently.”
The court ordered Osprey International (Managing Director) to furnish the court with detailed accounts of all monies that it has received and disbursed for and on behalf of the parties (Richard Dornu Nartey, the applicant) and Osprey International, the fifth defendant in the case.
“The account will include the investment, (if any), that the company has made with the amount that has been sitting in its coffers at all this while.”
The court presided over by Justice Solomon Oppong-Twumasi held that Osprey International was to file the account in the court’s registry on or before July 19, 2023.
The matter has been adjourned to July 21, 2023.
In a writ of summons, Richard Dornu Nartey, the plaintiff, said he is the head and lawful representative of the Lomotey We family of the Lomobiawe Clan of Ada.
Plaintiff said his family are the owners in possession of a large tract of ancestral lands situated at Sege in the Greater Accra Region, adding the land in dispute formed part of the lands they have owned for centuries.
According to the Plaintiff, it had come to their notice that Osprey International Limited was claiming to be acting on behalf of Lomobiawe Clan of Ada and the company was pursuing “a claim for compensation from government in respect of the said land on the blind side of the Plaintiff, the real owners of the land.”
It is the case of the plaintiff, the Lomotey We family “are exclusive owners” of the said land which did not belong to the entire Lomobiawe Clan as each lineage of the Lomobiawe Clan owns its exclusive family land in the Ada area.
In the statement of claim, the plaintiff said in the Ada area, lands are owned by families and not Clans and Stools.
According to the plaintiff, his family head and his elders had not instructed that the said consultant nor the Lomobiawe Clan to put in or receive any compensation on their behalf of the said land.
The plaintiff contended that “they did not know the actual persons who clandestinely instructed the said company to put in or receive the claim.
Plaintiff said there had been some misrepresentation made by some other defendants as to who authorized the payment of the said compensation.
Plaintiff contended that if the defendants “are not stopped from the said illegal payments, huge sums of the taxpayer’s money would be irretrievably lost as the said fund would have been squandered by persons not entitled to it and who would not be in a position to refund same as experience has shown,” the statement of claim said.
The defendants are the Attorney General, Ministry of works and Housing, Ministry of Finance, Osprey International Limited and Lomobiawe Clan of Ada.
The defendants, namely the Attorney General, Ministry of Works and Housing, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana, Osprey International Limited and Lomobiawe Clan of Ada also made their statements.
The Attorney General, Ministry of Works and Housing and Ministry of Finance (Ist, 2nd, and 3rd respectively) held that a letter dated October 12, 2018, addressed to the Minister of Works and Housing from Michael Zewu Glover Esq. acting as counsel for or on behalf of Numo Kpankpa Kojo, stated that the Sege land, part of which was being acquired by the Ministry of Works and Housing, belonged to the Lomobiawe Clan of Ada Traditional area, of which he was the officially recognised head.
The three defendants (I, 2, 3) wrote to the Lands Commission to establish the owners of the land.
According to the three defendants, the Lands Commission in its response to the letter “confirmed that the Lomotey We does not singularly own any part of the parcel of the land being acquired by the 2nd Defendants from the Lomobiawe Lan of the Ada Traditional area.
The defendants said a report from the Lands Commission valued the land at GHS18, 214, 500.
They said the Ministry of Works and Housing signed an agreement with the Lomobiawe Clan represented by six of the heads of the families constituting the Lomobiawe Clan of Ada Traditional Area.
“…Numo Kpankpa Kojo, being the officially recognised Head of the Lomotey We, signed the Agreement with the 2nd defendant (Ministry of Works and Housing) which was witnessed by members of the Ada Traditional Council.
…The landowners consented to be paid a total of GHS14,571,600 less than the value of the land seeded to the Ghana Revenue Authority.
The defendants said the Ministry of Works and Housing requested through a letter to the Ministry of Finance to release the stated amount for the payment to the landowners.
They held that the Ministry of Finance released GHS7,285, 800 being 50 per cent of the amount requested by the Ministry of Works and Housing for payment to be made to the landowners, that is the Lomobiawe Clan of the Ada Traditional Area.
The defendants held that “the Plaintiff is not entitled to any of the reliefs endorsed on his writ and Statement of Claim.”