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A diplomatic spat\u00a0between Ghana and Saudi\u00a0Arabia has been triggered\u00a0by the demolition of a\u00a0property in possession of\u00a0the oil rich country’s mission\u00a0in Osu, Accra.<\/p>\n
Following the development,\u00a0the Attorney General’s\u00a0Department has initiated\u00a0a suit to put on hold the\u00a0default judgment in favour\u00a0of the Osu Mankralo who\u00a0went to court on the issue.<\/p>\n
A justice of the High\u00a0Court, Mrs Rebecca Sittie,in her order for interlocutory\u00a0injunction dated 16th\u00a0September, 2014 referred to\u00a0the affidavit of Georgina\u00a0Mensa-Bonsu of the Attorney-\u00a0General’s Chambers,\u00a0Accra, in support of the exparte\u00a0motion for the order\u00a0that the defendant, Nii Ako\u00a0Nortei, ‘by himself, his\u00a0agents, workmen, assigns,\u00a0security officers or whosoever\u00a0are restrained from\u00a0entering or dealing with\u00a0the property, the subject of\u00a0dispute.’<\/p>\n
The order holds until\u00a0the final determination of\u00a0the suit instituted by the\u00a0Attorney General’s Department\u00a0in respect of the\u00a0Saudi Embassy property in\u00a0Osu, Accra.<\/p>\n
A statement of claim by\u00a0the Attorney General’s\u00a0Department notes that the\u00a0action is being taken on\u00a0behalf of the Republic of\u00a0Ghana, which, it went on,\u00a0holds reversionary interest\u00a0in the subject matter and\u00a0on behalf of the Government\u00a0of Saudi Arabia,\u00a0holder of the leasehold\u00a0interest on the land in contention.<\/p>\n
The Attorney General’s\u00a0Department in presenting\u00a0its case referred to a document\u00a0dated 1st November,\u00a01962 made between\u00a0Michael Daniel Bassil acting\u00a0through his attorney,\u00a0Mrs Charlotte Bassil on one\u00a0part and the Government\u00a0of Saudi Arabia acting per<\/p>\n
the Charge d’Affaires of\u00a0the embassy in respect of\u00a0the land in contention.<\/p>\n
The Saudi government\u00a0took possession and put up\u00a0structures using same as\u00a0the Embassy of Saudi Arabia,\u00a0the statement went on,\u00a0adding that various constitutions\u00a0which came into\u00a0effect, especially the 1992\u00a0Constitution, reduced the\u00a0interest of Saudi Arabia to\u00a0fifty years commencing\u00a022nd August, 1969 ‘with\u00a0the reversion in the President\u00a0on behalf of and in\u00a0trust for the people of\u00a0Ghana.’<\/p>\n
Considering the commercial\u00a0nature of the area,\u00a0the statement went on, the\u00a0embassy moved its consular\u00a0services from the\u00a0premises with the intention\u00a0of upgrading the property\u00a0on the land for use by the\u00a0Commercial Attache.<\/p>\n
The defendant, the Osu\u00a0Mankralo, is said to have\u00a0obtained a default judgment\u00a0in his favour on the\u00a0grounds that the property\u00a0had been abandoned and\u00a0being an allodial owner, is\u00a0entitled to its repossession.<\/p>\n
Continuing, the plaintiff\u00a0maintains that ‘none of\u00a0the defendants in the said\u00a0action had any proprietary\u00a0or possessory interest in\u00a0the land and that the judgment\u00a0was obtained by\u00a0fraud.’<\/p>\n
In their explanation of\u00a0the fraud, plaintiffs pointed\u00a0out that ‘the court was\u00a0misrepresented that the\u00a0defendants were the proper\u00a0persons to be sued and\u00a0indicating that the plaintiff\u00a0would direct service of the\u00a0writ in the said suit when\u00a0the said defendants were\u00a0nowhere to be found.’<\/p>\n
That the Government\u00a0of Saudi Arabia or its\u00a0Embassy was not joined to\u00a0the suit, although there\u00a0was a Saudi Arabian\u00a0Embassy name plate and\u00a0flag on the premises showing\u00a0that it was owned by\u00a0and in the possession of the\u00a0Embassy of Saudi Arabia\u00a0in Ghana, suggests fraud,\u00a0the statement went on.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff explained\u00a0that the Government of\u00a0Saudi Arabia or its\u00a0Embassy had not abandoned\u00a0the premises in\u00a0question because, as it\u00a0points out, ‘its flag and\u00a0sign-plate have always\u00a0been on the premises, its\u00a0air conditioners, water tank\u00a0and generator have always\u00a0been on the land and it has\u00a0kept security guards on the\u00a0land until they were\u00a0recently driven away.’<\/p>\n
BY A.R. Gomda<\/p>\n
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A diplomatic spat\u00a0between Ghana and Saudi\u00a0Arabia has been triggered\u00a0by the demolition of a\u00a0property in possession of\u00a0the oil rich country’s mission\u00a0in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}