Court set 'Black Wednesday' to Give Judgment

By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba

The Supreme Court has set May 9, for judgment in the case in which Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, as plaintiffs, are praying the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional and of no effect the purchase of bungalow No. 2 at Mungo Street, Ridge residential area, Accra by Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey when the latter was a Minister of State.

  The day set by the Supreme Court coincidently happened to be the day that many soccer fans lost their lives at the Accra Sport Stadium in a titanic  match between Accra Hearts of Oak and the Asante Kotoko.

Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey was a Minister of Information at the time of the incident in the erstwhile NPP government and played a key role in the management of the disaster that became known as ‘Black Wednesday’ and Mr.  Okudzeto Ablakwa, a plaintiff in the case is also a Deputy Minister of Information in the current government.

The nine member panel of judges which was led by Mr. Justice William Atuguba, yesterday set the date for judgment after lawyers for both side in the case indicated they were not going to call in any witness.

According  to  counsel, they  have all agreed to rely on their respective statement of case filed to the court  and do not have  further evidence to give to the court other than  the argument in their  various statement of case.

The other members of the panel sitting on the case were, Justice Sophia Akuffo, Justice S.A Brobby, Justice Julius Ansah, Justice Sophia Adinyira, Justice Rose Owusu, Justice Jones Dotse, Justice Paul Baffour-Bonne and Justice Vida Akoto Bamfo.

The case which was filed in 2008 by the two plaintiffs who are now Deputy Ministers of Information and Youth and Sports respectively reached an important stage and the judgment on May 9, would determine whether the state property should be given to Mr. Obetsebi Lamptey or be reversed to the people of Ghana.

The Supreme Court had in December last year thrown away a preliminary objection raised by Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey contending that the Supreme Court do not have original jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Jake Obetsebi Lamptey who is also the Chairman of the NPP seeks to lay claim to the bungalow No. 2 at Mungo Street, Ridge residential area, arguing that he has duly purchased it. 

In his preliminary objection, he had sought to argue that the two plaintiffs could have gone to CHRAJ or the High Court with their case and that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction in the matter.

He  contended that, Article 20 (5) of the 1992 constitution that the applicants sought for the supreme court interpretation, was unambiguous as it sought to address fundamental human rights and that the supreme court has no jurisdiction to hear the matter.

But the nine eminent judges in a unanimous decision last year held that constitutional matters have been raised by the Plaintiffs and that Jake could not oust the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Ghana to interpret the constitution in the matter.
In the latter part of 2008, Messrs Okudzeto Ablakwa and Omane Boamah sued the Attorney-General, the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands at the Lands Title Registry in their personal capacities as citizens for allocating the property to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey.

In the writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, they are praying the court to declare that by virtue of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing in the previous government did not have the power to direct the sale, disposal or transfer of any government or public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey or any other person or body under any circumstances whatsoever.

The two deputy Ministers are also praying the court to order that any such direction for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute or any other public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was illegal and unconstitutional.

They are further seeking a declaration that by virtue of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution, the government was obliged to retain and continue to use, in the public interest, the property in dispute.

They are also seeking a further declaration that the purported sale of the said government bungalow, located at St Mungo Street, Ridge, Accra, by the previous government to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was in utter contravention of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution.

According to the applicants, the Supreme Court should order that the purported direction by the then Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey smacked of cronyism, was arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory and a gross abuse of the discretionary power vested in a public officer under the 1992 Constitution.

The applicants are praying the court to declare that a publication by the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands which announced that the said property had been allocated to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was unconstitutional, void and must be struck out as such, since it was in contravention of articles 20(5), 23, 257, 258, 265, 284 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution.

Additionally, the applicants are praying for an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands and their agents “from perfecting the registration of a parcel of land designated as Parcel No 29, Block 12, Section 019, in extent 1.04 acres more or less, as delineated on Registry Map No 003/019/1998, on which is situated Republic of Ghana Bungalow No 2, located at St Mungo Street, Ridge, Accra, in the name of Hon Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey”.

A statement of case accompanying the writ said Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey allocated onto himself the government bungalow in dispute as his duty post and resided at the said duty post at a huge cost to the state from 2001 to 2008, although he resigned from his public office some time in 2007 to pursue his presidential ambition.

It said in 2001, when Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey was the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, the head office of the Public Works Department and later on a Minister of Information carried out, at his behest, renovation to the tune of GH¢17,254 “through Brockwell Construction & Engineering Limited, not to mention further additional refurbishment carried out at his instance to his taste at extraordinary expense to that state”.

According to the statement of case, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey subsequently applied to the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands for a land title certificate to effectuate what it termed “the illegal and unconstitutional transaction”.

It said the Chairman of the Lands Commission and the Chief Registrar of Lands took the above steps to regularize the grant to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey a land certificate in relation to the said property to effectuate the purported sale of the said government bungalow and plot to him.

According to the statement of case, the applicants wrote to the then Attorney-General, protesting the sale of the said bungalow, but the Attorney-General replied and pointed out that the matter was a constitutional issue.

They further argued that the then Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing did not have the power to “direct the sale, disposal or transfer of any government or public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey or any person or body under such circumstances and that any such direction for the disposal, sale or outright transfer of the said property in dispute or any other public land to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey is illegal and unconstitutional”.