Oseadeaye Kwasi Kanin V, Omanhene of Twi Atti Morkwa Traditional area, in the Central region, has been dragged before a Kumasi High Court for engaging in illegal mining on a legally acquired concession of a Concessioneer.
Also in the dock were Okyeame Yaw Asamoah, Ernest Ahirlu and Wu Ming Ji.
The plaintiff, Bright Kwabena Obeng, is seeking to recover GHc15 million jointly and severally against defendants for the quantity of gold so far mined from his concession, based on geological intelligence and physical inspection of the gold mined in the said concession.
A writ of summons filed on September 5, 2024 on behalf of the plaintiff by Hanson Kwadwo KoduahEsq. to this effect, is also seeking general damages of GHc20 million against the defendants.
The plaintiff has also applied for a declaration of the court, seeking an interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendants, their agents, labourers and workers from interfering with the plaintiff’s 14.73 acre concession, acquired by his Kadesh Mining Enterprise and duly licensed by the Minerals Commission.
The plaintiff claims the defendants have illegally and unlawfully trespassed on his concession and mined without authority about 85% of the entire 14.73 acres causing commercial disadvantage and economic loss to him.
The conduct of the defendants, he says, also constitute an infraction and illegality under the Minerals and Mining Act 703 as amended by the Minerals and Mining Act 900, among others, legal provisions.
Meanwhile, Philip M. Young Esq. of Amponsa-Dadzie and Partners, a law firm in Cape Coast on Monday September 23, 2024, filed a motion on notice to raise an objection to the venue and thus seeking an order for transfer of the suit to an appropriate forum in Cape Coast.
In an affidavit in support of the objection, the first defendant deposed that the disputed land lies in a Mining concession at Twifo Atti Morkwa and that the nearest High Court (Commmercial division) to the disputed land is the High Court of Cape Coast in the Central region and therefore the appropriate venue to hear and determine the suit.
Oseadeaye Kwasi Kanin also argued that the plaintiff ought to have commenced the action at a High Court in Cape Coast which has jurisdiction over the area in which the land lies and not in a Kumasi High Court.
The plaintiff has, in response, filed an affidavit in opposition to the defendants’ objection to venue for the determination contending that the Kumasi Court has jurisdiction geographically to hear the matter on full scale trial basis describing the defendants’ objection as materially incompetent, misconceived and unsustainable both in substantive and procedural jurisdictions of the court.
Counsel for the plaintiff has, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss defendants’ application for objection.
Lawyer Koduah argued that the Omanhene had no right to enter our concession in the first place despite the fact that he is the Omanhene of that traditional area.
He said the concession had legally been granted to the plaintiff by the Minerals Commision under the laws of the land and has the right to enter and mine and not the Omanhene. That is the law and must it be respected to champion the fight and national effort against galamsey.
The matter had been adjourned to the October 14, 2024 by which time all the parties and counsel would have filed the necessary documents that they would want the court to rely on and determine the matter.
