The long-standing land litigation between the Akweh family and the Puplampo families of Hwakpo in the Ada traditional area has been finally put to rest when after for the second time an Ashaiman Circuit Court presided over by Her Honor, Agnes Opoku-Barnieh has exonerated the Akweh family as the allodia owners of the over thirty acres of lands in Hwakpo part of which has been rented for the erecting of a mast by Crownville Limited.
Since 2013, the two families have been litigating over which of the two families owns the land and qualifies to take rent from the company for erecting its mast on the land.
The Circuit Court in the same year 2013 upon a suit filed by the Akweh family against Crownville Limited and the Puplampo family who are claiming rent from the company, declared the Akwah family as the landlords.
The presiding judge gave judgment based on land documents presented before it by the Akweh family after several absences of the representative of the Puplampo family to court.
In 2020, this time it is the head of the Puplampo family, Dr. David Buernor who is challenging the jurisdiction of the circuit court to determine a land case with a value worth over GHC10 million.
He told the court his absence at the court during the previous hearing was a result of him traveling outside the country for an international medical assignment.
The presiding judge ruled that ‘the plaintiff’s original writ was for a liquidated sum against the 1st defendant which amount was within the jurisdiction of the court’.
The judge maintained that ‘granted that the defendant’s counterclaim had put in issue a land with a value of GHC10 million when he claimed declaration of title to land, the circuit court still had jurisdiction to entertain the action since there is no limit to the jurisdiction of the circuit court in land matters’.
The head of the Akweh family, George Akweh has described their second victory as a testament of the courts upholding the rule of law and finding justice for the oppressed.
He added that ‘this is a sign of a bigger victory to come that would put the unnecessary litigations against the Akweh’s as kingmakers of Hwakpo to rest’.
The two families are not just contending over lands but also the Hwakpo stool, as the Ada Paramountcy has set up a committee to determine the true kingmakers of Hwakpo.
It has been the belief of the Akweh’s who after the court seconding ruling in their favor took to the streets of Hwakpo that the family would soon be outdooring a chief from the Akweh family as Hwakpo chief.