Lawyer Challenges Land Commission’s Trust Claims Over Disputed Adum Property

Edwin N. Poku, a Kumasi-based lawyer and defendant in a long-standing land dispute, has fiercely contested the Land Commission’s claim that lands in Adum, Kumasi, are held by the Government of Ghana in trust for the Golden Stool.

The case, currently before the High Court in Kumasi and presided over by Justice Frederick Tetteh, centers on Plot No. 83, Block VII OTA (Old Town Section A), a property at Adum. During cross-examination of Augustine Obeng Gyasi, a senior officer at the Land Commission, Mr. Poku argued that the Commission’s assertion lacks historical and documentary backing.

“It is not correct that the Government holds all Adum lands in trust for the Golden Stool,” Mr. Edwin Poku told the court, referencing leases dating from January 16, 1920 to April 30, 1974 (Exhibits B1–B7).

“Nowhere in those documents is it stated that the property is held in trust for the Golden Stool,” he emphasised.

Mr Edwin Poku further questioned the authenticity of a controversial document, Exhibit B8, which allegedly contains phrases not found in earlier leases.

He claimed the document includes deletions, insertions, and computer-generated elements inconsistent with the 1970s.

“In the 1970s and even into the early 1990s, Ghana did not have access to computers or electronic typewriters that could produce such documents,” he argued.

Challenging the origin of Exhibit B8, dated April 2, 1973 Mr. Poku accused the Land Commission and the Asantehene’s Stool Lands Secretariat of collusion to wrongfully dispossess him of his land.

He questioned how a computer printout supposedly created in 1973 could exist, given the technological limitations of the time. “This document is a computer printout — is that correct?” he asked the witness.

“Yes,” Mr. Gyasi replied, explaining that while typewriters were used, the evolving technology allowed for such documentation even in the early 1970s. He insisted the document was authentic and binding, regardless of the equipment used.

The core of Mr. Gyasi’s testimony, however, was that the state holds Adum lands, known as Part 1 or Kumasi town lands in trust for the Golden Stool and the Kumasi State.

“There is a fiduciary duty to act in utmost good faith to the beneficiaries,” he said, citing a 2006 court ruling by Justice E.A. Ampadu.

According to Gyasi, that ruling vested Part 1 lands in the Golden Stool and required the Lands Commission to provide full property records and rental accounts.

But when pressed by Mr. Poku to produce the said ruling and accompanying writ of summons, the witness admitted he could not, stating that the Legal Department of the Lands Commission might assist.

Justice Tetteh then ordered Mr. Gyasi to produce the judgment, writ of summons and any related consent judgment at the next hearing.

The matter has been adjourned to June 23, 2025 and other dates for continuation.

Poku, citing inconsistencies and lack of evidence from the Land Commission, called for the dissolution of the Commission’s Kumasi office, accusing it of systematically denying indigenes rightful ownership of their lands in Adum.

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