FRANCOIS JSC.
Sometime in 1971, the Government of Ghana was minded to acquire two parcels of land at Digya and Kogyae in the Kumawu Traditional Area, for the purpose of establishing a national park and a game reserve. Acquisition processes were set in train and the park and the reserve respectively were acquired on 20 September 1971, and subsequently established. But the modalities for the said acquisition have not gone unquestioned, and the circumstances surrounding the lodgment of claims and the payments thereon have neither passed without protest nor criticism. The protest which took the form of a legal suit mounted by some citizens of Kumawu, as the plaintiffs representing the Oman of Kumawu, attempted to halt an illegality perpetrated by the chiefs and traditional title holders of Kumawu in enriching themselves at the expense of the state. The plaintiffs’ concern seems to have revolved round the illegality that made the said chiefs beneficiaries in their personal right, of claims …