It appears some corrupt elements in the Akufo-Addo government, together with officials at Ga-West Municipal Assembly and a local chief, are hiding behind preparations to relocate some traders in Accra from Agbogbloshie to the new Adjen Kotoku Market, to achieve their personal interests.
Reports available to The Herald, indicate some persons from the Ga-West Assembly and Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (GARCC) led by Henry Quartey, the Regional Minister, are taking over peoples lands and looting building materials from sites, in the name of demolition to create space for traders at Adjen Kotoku.
Several building projects, at various stages of completion, being put up by private individuals who acquired their lands near the new market, have been pulled down without any lawful order.
Cement blocks, gravels, sand and other building materials on these lands, have also been taken away to unknown locations in a very suspicious manner, using tipper trucks and Pick-Up vehicles; as owners look on helplessly.
The exercise was undertaken and supervised by some heavily-built persons, claiming to be national security operatives, including officials from the Assembly, as well as their taskforce and some individuals from the Regional Coordinating Council, using official government vehicles with registration number, GV – 565 –18.
The illegal demolition, which started somewhere last week, is still ongoing as legitimate owners of the lands, have not been informed by way of a notice prior to the exercise, let alone the Assembly or RCC hold any discussion with them for possible compensations.
Indeed, this paper has gathered that some of the properties demolished by the marauding taskforce, were nowhere closer to the market, leaving many questioning the motive behind some of the individuals carrying out the exercise.
This paper’s checks, revealed most owners of these properties in fact, have genuine documents covering their lands, after acquiring them from the Adjen Kotoku chiefs long before government decided to use a portion of the area for market.
Some of the residents told The Herald, the Ga-West Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Clement Wilkinson, including some individuals in government, as well as the chief of the area by name, Nii Amoah VII, alias ‘Lion’ from Adjen Kotoku Amoaman, appear to have developed certain interests in some of the lands.
The affected residents told The Herald that prior to the demolition, the Ga-West MCE, had lured them into a meeting where he told them that their properties are safe, since they do not fall within the demarcations of the market.
Meanwhile, documents sighted by this paper, revealed there was an injunction granted by an Accra High Court in 2014 against Ga-West Municipal Assembly and the Chief, Nii Tackie Amoah, with respect to the lands and the properties which were demolished.
This was after the landowners took the Ga-West Municipal Assembly and the chief to court, in a case between Isaac Lawrence Kpodzro, Joseph Yaw Fankibi, Noah Tsagli and others as the plaintiffs vrs the Ga West Municipal Assembly and Nii Tackie Amoah as the 1st and 2nd defendants.
The injunction, dated April 10, 2014, was granted by Justice S. H. Ocran of the Accra High Court, Land Division One. The substantive case is still pending at the High Court in Accra.
Responding to the issues on Accra-based Accra FM on Saturday, June 26, 2021, the MCE, Clement Wilkinson, insisted that the lands in question actually belong to the government.
However, he said the government is making efforts to see how best it could compensate the land owners.
He urged the affected landowners to submit documents covering the land and their values for cool heads to prevail and possible compensations.
But the landowners say, both the Assembly and individuals in-charge of the exercise, have acted in bad-fate, because they failed to follow due process in the takeover of the lands.
They stated that they just woke up one day and realized, everything on their land was gone without any prior notice, insisting that the issue could have been handled in a much better way.
—theheraldghana
