The Juaboso District Assembly (JDA) in the Western North Region is currently in court battling it out with the local Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) and Six others over a parcel of land, ghananewsonline.com.gh has gathered.
A writ of summon cited by us indicates that the Assembly has dragged the church and six others to the Juaboso Magistrate Court over the encroachment of its Land situated at a place commonly referred to as ‘bungalow’ off the Antubia-Juaboso Motorway.
The writ, with suit number A1/43/21, has reportedly been served on the Defendants, and the hearing of the case which was first scheduled for June 20, 2021 has been re-scheduled to July 16, 2021
According to the Engineer of the Assembly, Thomas Amankwa Asuman (plaintiff), those lands form part of lands measuring 1,703 acres acquired by its Assembly for its developmental projects. However, the defendants have encroached the lands and erected structures without the knowledge and consent of the Assembly.
By this writ, the Assembly is seeking an order for demolition of the houses thereon. The Assembly is also seeking an order for perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, assignee, and all those who have interest in the disputed land through the defendants from further entering and/or working on same.
WE SHALL LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED
When the District Engineer for the JDA, Amankwa Assuman, , whose name is on the writ for the Plaintiff (JDA) was contacted; he indicated that the Assembly was leaving no stone unturned in its bid to retrieve such lands encroached upon by what he termed squatters.
According to him, the Assembly has the necessary documents on the Lands it has acquired and will make sure that encroached upon lands are retrieved. He hinted that the Assembly had acquired other lands dotted around, which had also been encroached upon by squatters.
Mr. Essuman, also referred to as Nana, maintained that he was posted to the District in 2018 and on assumption of office, he realized that most of the lands acquired by the Assembly had been encroached upon by squatters. He said that he would assign workers to put “STOP WORK, PRODUCE PERMIT” warning signs on structures raised on such lands, but the encroachers disregarded the warnings and went ahead with their plans.
Nana maintained that each time there was a change of government, encroachers would intensify their activities, thereby, giving their actions a political twist.
He however vowed that once the Assembly has covering documents, he will do all within his powers as the Engineer, to reclaim all those encroached upon lands. He indicated that failure to do so will not speak well of his stewardship and thus, stand blamable by posterity.
Meanwhile, occupants of those disputed lands also claim that they have covering papers on their lands and will involve their land owners from who they acquired their lands as well as their lawyers.
STAGE SET FOR BATTLE
With July set for the hearing of the case, the court room is believed to be set for an interesting scenery that day.
By S. O. Ankamah, Sefwi Juaboso, WNR
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