Court of Appeal orders Lands Commission to delete registration records of 21st Century company, others

The Central Regional Lands Commission is required by the Court of Appeal in Accra to remove 21 Century Company from its files.

This decree aims to put an end to the Gomoa Fetteh Land’s 13-year land dispute.

The Lands Commission was ordered to register the land documents of the 21st Century Company and its sister companies, as well as documents provided to their clients, in September 2005 after the Chiefs of Gomoa Fetteh petitioned the High Court in Cape Coast.

The chiefs filed a move for contempt of court when the property Commission refused to register the aforementioned property, which led to the parties signing a settlement agreement in court.

On June 18, 2020, the commission published a notice in the Daily Graphic instructing the Lands Commission to cancel the land registration of the parties whose lands were impacted.

The Chiefs decided to retry the case in court because, in their eyes, the commission failed to remove their names after the 21-day notice period had passed.

The court ordered the Lands Commission to cancel the land registration on the sections of the lands at Gomoa Fetteh. The court was presided over by Justices Poku-Acheampng, Kyei Baffour, and Archer.

The manager of 21st Century, Kofi Asmah, acquired 3,000 acres of land from chiefs of Gomoa Fetteh for estate purposes in the early 1990s, according to Nana Abor Atta II, who spoke at a press conference. However, the Lands Commission made a mistake and registered over 12,000 acres of land for the company without the chiefs’ knowledge.

In order to decrease land disputes in the area, Nana Abor Atta II urged the Lands Commission to conduct thorough research before registering land for individuals and estate corporations.

Nana Kwesi Quansah, the Omankrado of Gomoa Fetteh, also pleaded with the IGP to urge some members of the Ghana Police Service to stop making certain kinds of arrests.

Some police personnel, according to Nana Kwesi Quansah, are still used to making arrests in “rambo style” when conducting operations.

JoyNews got in touch with the 21st Century company’s management following the press briefing. However, the business made no comments about the court’s ruling.