Jubilation Galore In Ngleshie Amanfrom! -As Citizens Celebrate Court Declaration Of The Stool The Owners Of 48 villages; After 50 Years Of Legal Battle
Hundreds of the citizens and residents of Ngleshie Amanfrom under the James Town Ngleshie Traditional Area in the Ga South municipality of the Greater Accra Region have on Saturday August 6, 2022 stormed some principal streets of the area to jubilate.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
Hundreds of the citizens and residents of Ngleshie Amanfrom under the James Town Ngleshie Traditional Area in the Ga South municipality of the Greater Accra Region have on Saturday August 6, 2022 stormed some principal streets of the area to jubilate.
Amidst chatting of war songs in Ga language, the citizens and residents walked from the palace of Ngleshie Amanfrom through some towns including Galilea, Maheam, Top Town, American Farm, King Town among others which were under the traditional jurisdiction of the Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool Lands.
The jubilation follows when the court of Appeal in Accra has entered judgement in favour of elders of Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool over the custodian ownership of forty-eight (48) villages they are laying claim to which are located in the Ga South under the Ngleshie Alata Traditional Council in James Town, Accra.
The appeal was described as a consolidated appeal against Justice Amorin’s earlier judgement against Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool dated October 8, 1984, as well as Justice Mensah-Datsa’s judgement on June 12, 2018.
The judgement, delivered by the Justices of the Court of Appeal, in the persons of Justice G.S. Surbaareh, Justice Mrs. Merley Wood and Justice J. Bartels Kwadwo, who presided over the case with suit No H1/ 47/2021, brought finality on the long unending zone division of the land demarcation dispute between Odumpong Ofankor Stool in the Central Region and James Town Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool in the Greater Accra Region.
The case, which has travelled since 1972, was about 50 years now. The claimants to the said villages include the elders of James Town Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool, Papaase Stool, Odumpong Ofankor Stool, Gomoa Fetteh Stool, Awutu Stool and Senya Beraku.
Earlier, an Accra High Court declared a judgement against the Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool over the ownership claim of the 48 villages in the case involving the elders of James Town Ngleshie Amanfrom and Odumpong Ofankor which formed part of zone one of the land demarcation between the two communities.
That judgement stipulated that Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool Lands covered thirty-two (32) villages instead of its ownership claim of 48 villages.
After that judgement, the elders of the James Town Ngleshie Amanfrom were the only appellant against the judgement declared by Justice Mensah-Datsa dated June 12, 2018.
However, the other claimants such as Papaase Stool, Odumpong Ofankor Stool, Gomoa Fetteh Stool, Awutu Stool and Senya Beraku failed to join the appeal against the High Court judgement of the two judges.
Luckily the three Justices of the Court of Appeal in the persons of Justice G.S. Surbaareh, Justice Mrs. Merley Wood and Justice J. Bartels Kwadwo, presided over the case in their agreement on Saturday, July 7, 2022,entered the judgment in favour of Amanfrom Stool over the ownership of the 48 villages.
This clearly means that the remaining sixteen villages which have been removed from the 48 villages have now been added to 32 villages, making 48 villages being claimed by the elders of the stool.
There was wild jubilation by members of the Ngleshie Amanfrom, following the ruling.
Addressing journalists in his palace on Saturday August 6, 2022, the gazetted Chief of Ngleshie Amanfrom Divisional Stool, Nii Kwashie Gborlor IV, stated that Ngleshie Amanfrom lands comprised all the pieces of land situated in the 48 villages which shared tboundaries with Odumpong Ofankor.
He pointed out that the elders of the stool have exercised ownership rights over these lands for years.
He indicated that a closer look at the proceedings leading to the June 12, 2018, judgement will however, show that this judgement was as a result of an order for retrial of an aspect of the dispute that went before the Stool Lands Boundaries Settlement Commissioner, resulting in the judgement of Commissioner Amorin on October 9, 1984, which order was made when that judgement was appealed before the Stool Lands Boundaries Appeal Tribunal.
He said the judgement was good news for the entire Ngleshie Amanfrom family members, adding that, the era where non-family members disposed of the family properties was now over.
Nii Kwashie Gborlor IV stated that the statement of claim by their opponent from Odumpong Ofankor that the judgement declared in favour of the Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool is a ruling was not true, stressing that this is the final judgement being entered in their favour by the three Justices.
"This is an era of a new dawn" and I call on all the citizens of Ngleshie Amanfrom to come together and build a great dynasty.
…Our grandfathers fought for it, our fathers did, and now it is our turn,” Nii Kwashie Gborlor IV stated.
Nii Kwashie Gborlor IV noted that during his acceptance address after the elders and kingmakers installed him the chief of the area, he assured all the citizens of Ngleshie Amanfrom that he would not let go even a single property their fathers have left for them.
"So for me to lead my people to win this landmark case in favour of the Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool was a clear testimonial that l demonstrated to bring development to the door step of the people in the area," the chief said.
He disclosed that in some few days to come, since they won this case all the land developers in the catchment areas of these 48 villages under the Ngleshie Amanfrom will be subjected to strict proof of their landed property by producing their document to the secretariat of the Amanfrom Stool for proper verification.
The exercise, according to the chief which will be spearheaded by the members of Ngleshie Amanfrom Stool, owners of the landed properties in the 48 communities mentioned above, is dubbed “Operation Produce Your Document” which is the second phase of the umbrella exercise called ‘Operation Getting Things Done Right.
He pointed out that the move by the stool has three objectives - to move from manual database to digital database of all their landed properties sold; to curtail fraudulent sales of these 48 villages; and to avoid double sales of landed properties in these 48 communities.
He asserted that the yet-to-be embarked upon exercise follows a Court of Appeal judgement affirming the Ngleshie Amanfrom as the owners of the landed properties in these 48 villages in Ga South municipality.
The chief pointed out that the initiative has become necessary following the passage of the Land Act which does not have sympathy for anyone who deals in the double sale of land.
“We are going to embark on vigorous regularization of documents – Produce your document.Every developer on our land must take notice of this and when such time reaches, the rule of the game is compliance. If you refuse to comply, we will assume that you came to steal our property.
"If you know you have a genuine claim of the land, when the time reaches, produce your document. Our job is verification to know whether you bought it from the right sources. We want to know whether your document is genuine and when it is genuine, it is incumbent on us to protect your land,” he noted.
He added “The era where the land property is sold to two or three people is over. This is not a witch-hunting exercise or to penalize anybody. It is an exercise meant to create a digitized database.
"It is proper in the sense that where we have reached as a custodian owners of Ngleshie Amanfrom land , we have to support the government to make the system work better for all of us.
"So, we are also going to clean the system. With a digitized database, the chiefs cannot say that I signed a document without going to the site. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So, we need to also do things that will protect us.
"We don’t want to fall victim to the law and go and stand at the law court and pretend as if we don’t know what we have done. The law cannot bail you out. If you don’t have the authority to make sales, don’t make any grants. If you have the authority, don’t make double grants. The law is so clear," he explained.
To this end, Nii Kwashie Gborlor IV called on the strategic investors and other business men and women to come to Ngleshie Amanfrom to invest since the area is investment friendly.
