The Okpelor Sowah Din family of Nmai Dzorn has dragged General (Rtd) Arnold Quainoo to the presidency to intervene in a protracted land litigation.
According to the family in a petition sent to the Flag Staff House, they suspected General Quianoo popularly known as 'Buffalo Soldier' was conniving with some officials at the Lands Commission to plot a plot of land on official documents against the ruling of the Supreme Court.
In 2014, the former Chief of Defense Staff (CDS,) L t. Gen. Arnold Quainoo (Rtd,) was told by an Accra High Court (Land Division) that he was not the rightful owner of a piece of land he is occupying at Nmai Dzorn, near East Legon in Accra.
The court presided over by His Lordship, Justice Ernest Obimpeh, told Mr. Quainoo he has no capacity to prevent the rightful owners [Okpolor Sowah Din Family of Teshie] from taking over their land.
Lt. Gen. Quainoo affectionately called Buffallo petitioned an Accra High Court to restrain some developers who were acting on the instructions of the rightful owners from working on a portion of the said land which he [Arnold Quainoo] has forcibly taken over.
But the court ruled that the Supreme Court in 2004 had ruled that the Okpelor Sowah Din family was the rightful owners of the land and therefore their agents or assignees cannot be prevented from entering the land.
According to a source, Lt .Gen. Quainoo invaded the land with two battalions of soldiers in 1988 under the pretext of establishing a farm for the Ghana Armed Forces where General Quainoo was then a Commander and CDS.
It was later discovered that ‘Buffalo’ lied to the nation. The said farm was established in the name of his private company, Demeter Farms, hence a formal petition was sent to the National Investigative Committee (NIC) where he was invited to appear before it.
It was later discovered that the said land had been leased to Gen. Quainoo for 21 years by the Chief of Ashaley Botwe, the late Ebenezer Neequye Kotei.
This was after several court rulings, including the Supreme Court, had affirmed that the land belonged to the Opkelor Sowah Din family.
The rightful owners therefore had no other option than to go through a long legal battle with all illegal occupants until 2004 when the Supreme Court ruled that the land belonged to Okpelor Sowah Din family.
Since then, several letters had been written to Lieutenant General Quainoo for an amicable settlement and possible compensation to him but he refused.
The owners then went for a writ of possession from the court after the Supreme Court ruling had been fully recorded by the court.
Source: New Crusading Guide
