Presided over by Justice Eric Ansah Ankomah, the court declared Wasipewura and Savana Plantation as the rightful owners of the disputed land.

The defendants, including Tolon-Naa and five others, were ordered to pay GH¢30,000 in damages for trespassing and GH¢20,000 in legal costs.

Justice Ankomah noted that evidence presented in court, including cross-examinations and a joint site inspection, exposed inconsistencies in the defendants’ claims. The full judgment is yet to be released to the parties involved.

Counsel for the plaintiffs, Iana Adaewine, described the ruling as a victory for the justice system.

“This decision shows that the courts remain active, neutral, and fair. People should not take the law into their own hands,” he said, urging land buyers to engage qualified lawyers or technical experts when acquiring property to avoid conflicts.

Secretary to the Wasipewura, Jantonwura Peter Awusi Yakubu, said the ruling was a relief for the Wasipe Traditional Area and the wider Gonja kingdom.

“With this outcome, the Wasipewura will enskin chiefs in the remaining villages to protect our lands for future generations,” he added, encouraging other chiefs across Gonja land to take similar steps to safeguard their territories.

The dispute dates back to 2011 when the then-regent, now Tolon-Naa Major Sulemana, claimed that the Tolon boundary extended to the White Volta near Daboya.

Tensions escalated, leading to a lawsuit in 2018 after some residents of Kpendua allegedly trespassed on land leased by the Wasipewura to Savana Plantation. Both traditional authorities later joined the suit, asserting ownership rights over the land extending to the White Volta River.

The court conducted a joint site inspection on June 19, 2025, which formed part of the evidence leading to the judgment.

Source: Isaac Nongya

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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP was facing two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.

On December 9, 2020, state prosecutors said they found an AK-47 rifle and 60 rounds of ammunition in an office which is said to belong to the MP.

This was rejected by the NDC, stating emphatically that its offices, Savelugu’s not an exception, are open and the weapons might have been planted there deliberately.

After several months of absence, Alhaji Wunbenkpan was summoned following a bench warrant issued by Presiding Judge Justice Richard Kogyapwah.

On Monday, April 3 when he was heading to court, scores of NDC supporters followed their MP to solidarise with him.

This led to a clash between the supporters and the police at the Tamale High Court.

On Monday, July 31, Alhaji Wunbenkpan was acquitted.

The NDC MP beat incumbent MP Muhammed Abdul-Samed Gunu in the 2020 elections to reclaim the Savelugu seat for his party.

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Justice Kudjordie says the Registrar’s conduct is not worthy of being tagged with the label of honesty.

This conclusion was reached by the court in the case of Abubakari Iddi vrs Zakariah Alhassan and three others.

This dispute bothered an attempt to recover the outstanding debt through the possession and possible sale of a house.

The court presided over by a different judge had earlier granted one of the parties the right to initiate court processes to possess a House situated at Zamigu Tamale.

The court was, however, asked to use its powers to set this order aside because it was issued when there was a pending request that the court processes be put on hold.

Key to resolving this dispute was the question of whether there was indeed a pending court process at the time the court gave its order.

Both sides to the dispute had a document showing a search conducted at the registry of the High Court to answer this crucial question.

One side’s document showed there was a pending case while the other side’s document showed there wasn’t any such pending case and that the only outstanding case had been struck out by the court.

The Registrar was invited by the court to provide some clarity on the matter.

He told the court the document claiming there was no pending court processes did not emanate from his office since it did not bear his signature.

For the other document, the registrar told the court it had his stamp and signature, hence emanating from his office.

When asked who is responsible for issuing such documents, the Registrar said he was the one authorised to do so. He told the court he has never delegated such a duty to anyone.

The registrar, however, admitted during court proceedings that the unsigned document was his handwriting but one letter had been altered.

“Yes, it is my handwriting but if you look at question 3, how I write the letter ‘Y’ has been altered”.

The court was, thus, left with no choice but to answer the question of which of the two documents in dispute was authentic.

It, therefore, checked the official court records capturing the proceedings of the case to answer this.

It found quite strangely that the unsigned and unstamped document was rather a true reflection of the state of affairs.

“The attempt by the Registrar to downplay exhibit D is most unfortunate and can be viewed as an attempt to justify his false answers on exhibit c.

“In furtherance of his ignominious objective, he deliberately did not sign and affix his stamp on exhibit D but truth like cork always floats in the water. His attempt to put a label of authenticity on Exhibit C backfired.

“The most reprehensible aspect of his conduct is to impugn the integrity of the search of Alhaji Mohammed Abdullai Esq,” the judge stated.

He thus concluded that the court was misled.

“I also find that the court was misled by exhibit C of the defendant which was a product of dishonest conduct of the Registrar of the High Court Tamale and the dishonest conduct concealing vital information relevant to the consideration of the application.”

He, therefore, directed that the Chief Justice is asked to investigate the matter.

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The Court presided over by Justice Richard Kogyapwah had earlier issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the MP on March 31, 2023, after he failed to appear in court.

But in court on Monday, April 3, the counsel for the MP, Charles Lwanga Puozuing, appealed to the court to rescind its decision. The court subsequently granted the plea of the lawyers of the MP.

Mr Iddrisu is being prosecuted on two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.

On December 9, 2020, state prosecutors said they found an AK-47 rifle and 60 rounds of ammunition in an office they alleged to be owned by the Savelugu MP.

In court on Monday, the state prosecutors presented their last witness, the Northern Regional Crime Officer Superintendent Bernard Baba Ananga.

During cross-examination, the lawyer for the accused, Charles Lwanga Puozuing, stated that even though the police had indicated there were many other witnesses, only the four who moved from the regional headquarters to Savelugu were the people who had written their statement.

Speaking to the media after the court proceedings, Mr Puozuing said his camp believes it was a calculated attempt by the four to incriminate their client.

In their statement, they said other persons were present when the incident happened but they haven’t been able to file any such testimony independent of the police.

“So, our mind is that it was an orchestrated matter the police set out from Tamale purposely to create a scenario at Savelugu and put it on the MP,” he said.

Mr Puazuing quizzed, ”If there were other witnesses, why did they not write the statement and testify in court? If there were pressmen, military men, and other police officers from Savelugu, why didn’t they write their statement?”

Mr Puazuing said the witnesses of the prosecution were not credible and that it was a planned act calculated and executed.

He stated that three officers have been crossed examined already with the final person being the Northern Regional Crime Officer, the officer in charge of all crime prosecutions in the Northern region.

The High Court on January 30, 2023, presided over by Justice Richard Kugyapwah, ruled in favour of the Technical University College, asking that the Ambariya Islamic Institute vacates with immediate effect their illegal occupation of the structures of the University College.

The Court had also found four members of the Islamic Institute guilty of contempt for organizing and leading a mob, in April of 2022, to attack the staff and students and forcibly occupy the school properties.

Justice Richard Kujagba ruled that the occupation of the university’s property by the Islamic institute had no basis in law; hence Ambariya must vacate the premises pending the outcome of the substantive case of a land dispute between the two institutions.

The Ambariya Institute has, however, refused to abide by the court’s ruling and continued to illegally occupy the university’s structures with impunity.

This compelled the Principal of the school to apply a motion exparte filed on March 7, for an order of police assistance to compel the Ambariya Islamic Institute to vacate the premises of the University College.

Justice Richard Kugyapaw on March 8 ruled in favour of the applicant, ordering the police command to assist in enforcing his ruling.

“It is hereby ordered that the Regional Police Command assists in the enforcement of a lawful order of the court which was procured in furtherance of the lawful and peaceful execution of an order of the court,” the judge ordered in a document released and signed by the Court Registrar, Mohammed Musah.

It’s been almost a week since the court made this special request to the police. JoyNews checks however found the police are struggling to enforce the court’s order.

Attempts for comments from the police were unsuccessful.

The Ambariya Islamic Institute was also unavailable to comment.

The three others are Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, Deputy Chief Executive (Operations), Patrick Seidu Deputy Chief Executive (Finance & Administration) and Andrew Kuundaari, Chief Executive A&QS Consortium Limited.

The four accused persons were granted a bail of GHS500,000 each amounting to GHS2 million with three sureties each.

The accused person, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them.

They are expected to reappear in court on February 28, 2023, for case management.

The court also ordered the accused persons to deposit their travelling passports at the court.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), recently directed for criminal prosecution of the three for breaches of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

The Special Prosecutor (OSP), Kissi Agyebeng, charged the accused persons with conspiracy to directly or indirectly influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.

Mr Abdul-Rahman, Mr Seidu, and Mr Kuundaari have been charged with a further count each of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, while Mr Yir-eru Engmen has been charged with a further two counts of the same offense.

It will be recalled that two Deputy Chief Executive Officers of the Northern Development Authority(NDA) were sacked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

A statement signed by the Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare read “ We wish to inform you that, H.E the President has decided to terminate your appointment as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority with effect from 21st March 2023.”

The statement further directed that the sacked Deputy Chief Executive Officers of the Northern Development Authority hand over their duties and any official property in their custody to the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority before his departure.

The Northern Development Authority (NDA) has been in the news in recent times over some alleged corruption-related cases at the office.

The complaint Mr Martin Kpebu alleged that the Public Procurement Authority approved the award of GHC5,720,000 on 16 January 2020 and that no approval was sought for the inflated figure of GHC10,400,000.

The complaint further alleged that though the contract has expired, NDA has gone ahead to implement the same and paid about GHC3,000,000 and that there was an attempt to pay an additional 5,000,000.

Before the filing of the complaint by Mr Kpebu, the Chief of Staff at the Presidency had been petitioned on 11 January 2022 by a former Acting Chief Executive of NDA, Dr. Alhassan Sulemana Anamzoya on the same matter. In his petition titled – Falsification of A&QS Contract under the IPEP – Dr Anamzoya stated that his attention had been drawn to a document purportedly signed by him awarding a Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand cedi contract (GHC10,400,000.00) to A&QS by NDA under the IPEP.

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Dr Anamzoya denied executing any such contract. He claimed that on 28 January 2020, he signed (for and on behalf of NDA) a contract awarded by NDA to A&QS of Five Million Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand cedis (GHC5,720,000.00) based on approval by the Public Procurement Authority (hereafter, PPA) dated 16 January 2020.

He contended that the document containing the contract sum of Ten Million Four Hundred Thousand cedis (GHC10,400,000.00) was doctored by the transposition of his signature onto that document, which numbering does not tally with the remaining pages of the document.

Dr Anamzoya’s object of petitioning the Chief of Staff was twofold – to expose the perpetrators for punishment and to clear his name.

They include three officers of the Northern Development Authority (NDA) and Mr Andrew Kuundaari, the Chief Executive Officer of A&QS Consortium who have been arraigned before the court over procurement breaches. 

The NDA officers are Mr Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, the Chief Executive, NDA, Mr Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, Deputy Chief Executive (Operations) and Mr Patrick Seidu, Deputy Chief Executive (Finance and Administration).

The four persons have been charged with conspiring to commit the crime of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to “obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.”   

According to the OSP, the act of the four persons was contrary to Section 23(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and Section 92(2) b of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).  

It said that they agreed to act together with a common purpose of directly or indirectly influencing a procurement contract under the implementation of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication (IPEP) by increasing without lawful authority, the total sum of GHS5,720,000 to GHS10,400,000.  

This was on the back of a petition by a private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu in June 2022 for investigations to be conducted into the operations of NDA and the actions of its Chief Executive and its Board Chairman.  

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The complainant alleged that NDA awarded a contract to A&QS Consortium on 28 January 2020 for consultancy services for the supervision of some constituencies in the Upper West Region under the IPEP for the contract sum of GHS5,720,000.00.  

The NPP 2020 parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Muhammed Abdul-Samed Gunu, in January 2021, filed a petition to challenge the results.

The 2020 Campaign Manager, Peter Mac Manu, has said the NPP believes the collation exercise which had to be finally moved to Tamale, the Regional capital, was marred with irregularities.

He said because of these issues, the party has no copies of the collation sheets, and collation summary forms, hence the request for the EC to produce those documents for inspection.

The parliamentary election petition dated January 8, 2021, had the EC as the first respondent and Abdulai Jacob Iddris, who stood on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and won the election, as the second respondent.

Mr Gunu secured 19,478 votes while the NDC’s candidate secured 19,577 votes, an Independent Candidate secured 10,286 votes, and a Candidate on the People’s National Convention ticket got 156 votes.

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The petitioner said the Parliamentary and Presidential elections were vitiated by gross and widespread malpractices that substantially and materially affected the results as declared by the EC in favour of Mr Idrris.

Mr Gunu, therefore, prayed the court to declare the second respondent as not the validly elected MP for the area.