The Court of Appeal (Civil Division) on Wednesday refused an application by the Attorney General and two others for interim injunction against Jowak Sawmills Limited, a timber company. The court in a unanimous ruling decided it found no sufficient and satisfactory demonstration on the part of the Attorney General and the two others of any exceptional circumstances warranting the court to exercise its discretion in their favour in a matter in which they sought the injunction pending their appeal of a judgment. Justices S.E. Kanyoke, V.D. Ofoe and S. Dzamefe presided over the appeal. “We have read the bulky court processes filed and in the docket for and against this application for stay of execution. We have also very carefully weighed the arguments of both counsel for the parties. We are of the view that the applicant has not sufficiently and satisfactorily demonstrated that there are exceptional circumstances warranting the exercise of our discretion in favour of the application. The application is accordingly refused,” the ruled. The Attorney General and the two others are also in the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn the judgment of a High Court in a timber concession case. The High Court (Lands Division) in Accra in the middle of January this year declared Jowak Sawmills Limited as the company rightfully allocated a number of disputed timber concessions in the Western Region (Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire Boundary Teak Trees) Forest Reserve and consequently ordered the Attorney General & Minister of Justice as well as the Forestry Commission to issue an entry permit to Jowak for the Forest Reserve. The decision by the court, which also slapped a cost of GH￠50,000 against the A-G, the Forestry Commission and another timber company, Fort Williams, followed a suit by Mr. John Owusu Amankwa, Managing Director of JOWAK Sawmills Limited. Justice Kwabena Asuman-Adu, who presided, also placed a restraining order on the Attorney General & Minister of Justice as well as the Forestry Commission from granting Fort Williams or any other person or company, entry to the said Forest Reserve after it heard that in 2007, the Forestry Commission allocated boundary teak trees in seventeen (17) specified forest reserves to Jowak Sawmills Limited for the sum of GH￠1,338,883.84 in addition to 15% VAT. Jowak Sawmills Limited complied with the terms and conditions of the allocation of the concessions, including the payment of the consideration fee, however the Forestry Commission managed to re-allocate portions of the concessions to other companies. Jowak Sawmills protested against the reallocation, following which it met with the Forestry Commission and the Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines for negotiations. The Minister and the Commission subsequently approved the replacement of the affected concessions. According to Jowak Sawmills, the Forestry Commission issued it with entry permits to enter some of the replacement forest reserves but failed to issue entry permit to Jowak to enable it enter the Western Region (Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire) Boundary Teak Trees Forest Reserves. Rather, the Forestry Commission allocated and issued an entry permit to Fort Williams to enter the forest reserve in September 2008. It was against this background that Jowak, led by the MD Mr. John Owusu Amankwa, went to court to seek justice. But dissatisfied with the judgment of the High Court, the Attorney General and two others are appealing against the judgment. Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana