Juaso Chief, Cocoa Board sued for allegedly destroying 25-acre cocoa farm

A middle-aged farmer at Juaso, in the Ashanti region, is asking a High Court in Kumasi to order the Chief of Juaso and the Ghana Cocoa Board (GCB) to compensate him with Gh¢750000 for destroying his 25-acre cocoa plantation.

The farmer, Mustapha Musah, claims the chief, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi, and the Seed and Production Unit of the GCB of the Juaso division illegally invaded his plantation and destroyed it. He says some other crops including plantain, which were inter-planted, were also destroyed.

In his statement of claims, the plaintiff asserted that each acre of the 25 acres often yielded 7 bags of cocoa. He added that he would have enjoyed such return for the next 50 years if the plantation had not been destroyed.

The case, titled Mustapha versus the Juaso Stool, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi, and the Seed and Production Unit of Ghana Cocoa Board, has Juaso Stool, Nana Asafo Atta Tabi and the Seed and Production Unit of Ghana Cocoa Board as 1st defendant, 2nd defendant and 3rd defendant respectively.

The plaintiff said he was realizing an average annual income of Gh¢87,000 from his farm before the defendants destroyed it.

The plaintiff claimed he entered into an agreement on the 12th of May 2006 with the chief of the area at the time, Nana Akwasi Prempeh, to cultivate the land. The said agreement was deduced into an indenture at a Circuit Court in Juaso. The plaintiff also stated that he was always driven away and insulted whenever he sought to know why the defendants invaded his farm.

So far, the plaintiff has been crossed-examined by the defendants’ lawyers. The defendants and witnesses are scheduled to have their turns for cross-examination early in 2023.

Below is a copy of the plaintiff’s statement of claims:

The Plaintiff’s Claims against the Defendants herein as follows:

A declaration by the Court that the Plaintiff has a legal and equitable interest in all that piece of land(s) lying and situated at a place commonly known and called Pentimpa on Juaso Stool lands, across River Kome, and shares boundaries with Op. Kwasi Krah, Op. Babanatu, Op. Kwabena

Maame Mary Fosua near Morso in the Ashanti Region, measuring approximately 42 acres for forest land and 50 acres for grassland and that the 1st and 2nd Defendants cannot unilaterally grant the disputed land(s) to the 3rd Defendant without the Plaintiff’s consent.

ii.A declaration that the 3rd Defendant’s entry unto the land in dispute is/was unlawful and same amount to trespass and an order of recovery of possession of same.

iii. An order for interlocutory/perpetual injunction against the defendants herein, their agents, servants, assigns, workmen, or person(s) claiming through them from any or further cultivation(s) on the land in dispute.