A High Court Judge, Justice Gyamfi Osei, on Friday 10th March 2023 in Accra gave a stark example of what is fast becoming a recognizable phenomenon of “unlawful corporate killing” in some Ghanaian courts presided over by certain judges in and around the country.
Left in the wrong hands, judicial power which lies at the heart of any viable and working justice system is a potentially deadly weapon that can exact corporate fatality at the stroke of a pen. With the increasing frequency of incidents of such judicially-induced homicides, it is no wonder that employment, taxes, economic activity and the general standard of living is on steep decline in Ghana.
By 11am Friday morning, Justice Gyamfi Osei, presiding over Court 10 of the Land Division in Accra, had already done the shocking deed by shedding the lifeblood of one of the oldest corporate estate developers in Ghana, ACP Estates Limited (ACPEL).
This corporate killing, which onlookers cry to the heavens as unlawful, occurred when the learned judge ordered that over 100 acres of land forming part of ACPEL’s residential estate in Pokuase in Accra should be given back to ACPEL’s lessors, the Nii Dodoo Clottey family that had leased it to the company some 33 years ago.
The company had held and developed the land into a residential oasis with nearly 300 homes and residents. With all the infrastructure placed on the estate by ACPEL over the years, the value of the land that Justice Gyamfie Osei wrested from the hands of the company stands well in excess of US$20 million.
As though not enough, the High Court Judge, on his own, further ordered that ACPEL pay to its lessors an amount of GHC9 million which was paid to the company by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) some years ago, for the compulsory acquisition of 9 acres of its land used to build and house a huge district electricity power station.
But what is most curious about this case and the judgement of the court is that the Nii Dodoo Clottey family was not a party to the case before Justice Gyamfie Osei. Indeed, it was a complete stranger to the action caused by some four individuals namely Nii Dodoo Amponsah, Isaac Dodoo, Nii Amoo Dodoo and Stephen Amposah Dodoo.
The Nii Dodoo Clottey family was not in any court of law with any grievance against ACPEL. It has for over 32 years respected the terms and conditions of the ACPEL lease and accepted ground rents which have been paid up to them to date.
The court case was brought before Justice Gyamfie Osei by ACPEL as the plaintiff. The company had sued the 4 individuals who were represented in court by Jerry John K Asiedu of Ecam Law Consult for trespassing onto the Pokuase Estate and selling the company’s plots of land to unknown third parties.
Curiously, despite the defendants not claiming ownership in their own right to the land they trespassed upon in ACPEL’s Pokuase estate, they raised what had been termed by legal minds as a “spurious defence” that ACPEL had not fulfilled all its obligations owed to the Nii Dodoo Clottey family which they were members hence the ACPEL’s lease should be terminated, and the land taken away from it.
Despite the Nii Dodoo Clottey family as lessor not being a party and never having complained, Mr. Justice Gyamfie Osei was irresistibly attracted to this line of reasoning and argument and thereby yielded to the urge to shed the corporate lifeblood of ACPEL and end its life.
Sources at Pokuase reveals that the defendants had such confidence in their arguments against ACPEL that several weeks before the judgement of Justice Gyamfi Osei was to be read, there was much singing, dancing and jubilation in their camp.
Against, the defendants in anticipation of a victory were said to have also commissioned and paid an independent surveyor GHC300, 000.00 to survey the entire estate as a preemptive and preparatory step prior to judgement. Indeed, they were filled with such mirth that they lent themselves to unbridled jolly and jeering boastfulness to ACPEL residential estate staff. As a result on Judgement Day the only surprise parties in court were ACPEL and its lawyers; Quandzie & Associates.
Mr. Justice Gyamfi Osei is a man not unknown to controversial adjudication. In Tamale it is reported that lawyers boycotted his court on account of quite unexpected outcomes in otherwise basic and simply clear but high value cases. Google database is replete with information about his career so far. Since Tamale, the goodly judge seems to have enjoyed a promotion to Court 10 in the Land Division of Accra, the capital city of Ghana.
Unless by some other twist of fate – good or bad, depending on where one stands – residents of Greater Accra Region can clearly look forward or dread many a future attempt at Solomonic justice by Mr. Justice Gyamfi Osei.
An Appeal has been filed, and even if it takes the salvation of Christ Almighty himself to descend for a resurrection of ACPEL from this unlawful killing it shall be his will to be done. But with appeals taking an average of 4 years to conclude in Ghana, could it be all too little too late? The question is left for the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah to answer.
More to come…
