Achimota School Secures Injunction Over School Lands

The President of the Old Students Association and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, confirmed the injunction and vowed that they would do everything to keep the school land.

Parts of the school’s land have been taken over by squatters, land guards and developers who were putting up structures without permits.

The Old Achimotans Association has vowed to employ every lawful means possible to protect school lands facing a rapid decimation by encroachers.

Prof Ernest Aryeetey warned illegal developers that "if they erect walls 100 times, we will bring them down 100 times”.

A 172-acre land is at the heart of a legal battle between the school and Osu traditional leaders who, in 2011, took possession of the property located in prime areas in Accra.

The Osu traditional council, at a June 16 press conference, explained that “It is not as if the stool went onto the land without following due process. We have been in court with the Lands Commission and the Attorney-General over the issue which they lost.”

The school’s lands were acquired by ordinance by the colonial government from the Osu stool in 1921 and an amount of 4,000 pounds paid to the elders of the stool.

But a protracted land litigation became murkier when the Osu Mankralo stool and a few elders went to court and averred that more than 170 acres of the land were not being used for the purpose for which the colonial government acquired it.

Consequently, the Osu Mankralo stool wanted it reverted to the original owners.

A legal officer of the Lands Commission said according to records available at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, instead of informing the Attorney-General to enable the government to prepare a solid defence, the school failed to do so.

He said the school went to court to state, among other things, that the state had no evidence to adduce in defence and, therefore, the court could go ahead and make a ruling.

The court then ruled in favour of the Osu Mankralo stool and his team and handed the land back to them.

The elders of Osu Mankralo stool then proceeded to sell the land to some private developers who had begun developing the area in earnest.

But members of OAA are against reverting the school’s land to the Osu Mankralo stool, and the meeting was held to discuss how to retrieve it.