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A middle-aged farmer in the Ashanti region, Juaso, is requesting that a High Court in Kumasi order the Chief of Juaso and the Ghana Cocoa Board (GCB) to compensate him with Gh750000 for destroying his 25-acre cocoa plantation.
The farmer, Mustapha Musah, claims that the chief, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi, and the Seed and Production Unit of the Juaso division of the GCB illegally invaded and destroyed his plantation. Other crops, including plantain, he claims, were also destroyed.
According to the plaintiff’s statement of claims, each acre of the 25 acres frequently yielded 7 bags of cocoa. He also stated that if the plantation had not been destroyed, he would have received such a return for the next 50 years.
The defendants in the case, Mustapha versus the Juaso Stool, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi, and the Seed and Production Unit of Ghana Cocoa Board, are Juaso Stool, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi, and the Seed and Production Unit of Ghana Cocoa Board, in that order.
Before the defendants destroyed his farm, the plaintiff claimed he was earning an average annual income of Gh87,000 from it.
The plaintiff claimed that on May 12, 2006, he entered into an agreement to cultivate the land with the area’s then-chief, Nana Akwasi Prempeh. At a Circuit Court in Juaso, the said agreement was deduced into an indenture. The plaintiff also claimed that whenever he inquired as to why the defendants had invaded his farm, he was always driven away and insulted.
So far, the defendants’ lawyers have cross-examined the plaintiff. Cross-examination of the defendants and witnesses is scheduled for early in 2023.
The plaintiff’s statement of claims is reproduced below:
The following are the Plaintiff’s claims against the Defendants:
i. A declaration by the Court that the Plaintiff has a legal and equitable interest in all that piece of land(s) lying and situated at a place commonly known and called Pentimpa on Juaso Stool lands, across River Kome, and shares boundaries with Op. Kwasi Krah, Op. Babanatu, Op. Kwabena
Maame Mary Fosua near Morso in the Ashanti Region, measuring approximately 42 acres for forest land and 50 acres for grassland and that the 1st and 2nd Defendants cannot unilaterally grant the disputed land(s) to the 3rd Defendant without the Plaintiff’s consent.
ii. A declaration that the 3rd Defendant’s entry unto the land in dispute is/was unlawful and same amount to trespass and an order of recovery of possession of same.
iii. An order for interlocutory/perpetual injunction against the defendants herein, their agents,
servants, assigns, workmen, or person(s) claiming through them from any or further cultivation(s) on the land in dispute.
iv. Costs, including Legal fee.
Any further order(s) or other relief(s) that the court may seen fit to make.
Source: starrfmonline