Inspector General of Police Alert: 'Our Lives ln  Danger Now!' -Kasoa Millennium City Land Developers Cry Over Land-guards Attacked

THERE is looming tension and insecurity at Kasoa Millennium City in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region which needs intervention of the state security regulatory institutions to avert any disaster.

The frightening situation is as a result of the fact residents are reeling under constant harassments and attacks by land-guards their legally acquired lands.

These weapon-wielding land-guards tend to carry out their operations on the blindside of police officers in the Central East Police Command.

According to some of the residents, who are also victims of the land-guard attacks, land developers and their workers who go to their sites to work are often severely beaten by these ferocious land-guards.

The constant attacks on their lives and properties have informed the decision of the developers and residents in Kasoa Millennium to stage a massive demonstration against the increasing number of land guard activities in the area.

The residents blamed the police at the Criminal Investigative Department of Central Regional Police Command for being in bed with these land-guards who have been hired by some elders of Gomoa Fetteh, thus the police inability to stop their nefarious operations in the area.

"When we report our cases to police officers at the Central East Regional Police Command, they will tell us categorically that they cannot follow up the case because the land-guards had already taken over our legally acquired lands we bought from the allodial owners from the Gomoa Fetteh Traditional Area and resold them to other innocent people," the victims narrated.

"We have read media reports that the Central East Police Regional Commander headquartered at Millennium, DCOP, David Senanu Eklu, has promised he will give security protection for the various land developers who have legally and lawfully bought lands.

"We are calling on DCOP David Senanu Eklu to redeem his promises to protect genuine land developers in Gomoa Fetteh and its adjoining communities," the victims urged.

They also accused the police of becoming ‘paramount chiefs’ who were meddling in chieftaincy affairs instead of being peace-maintaining officers in the Gomoa Fetteh community.

At a press conference on Thursday, February 2, 2023, to narrate their ordeals, they victims rubbished the widespread claims by the Awutu Senya East Municipal Chief Executive, Madam Love Obo Amissah, that the issue of land-guards who terrorise residents of Kasoa and other locations within the municipality has been drastically reduced.

The distraught residents and land developers who are in the Awutu Senya East and West municipalities therefore called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to as a matter of urgency, deploy police personnel to combat land-guard activities within the area.

According to the residents, there was the need for the IGP’s swift intervention to salvage the situation because personnel of the Criminal Investigative Department in the Central East Police Command were allegedly not handling the issue with the seriousness it deserved.

They victims described the illegal acts of the land guards as a form of terrorism, alleging that some investigators at the Central East Police Command were receiving huge sums of money and gifts of cars from leaders of the land guards and therefore refused to follow up on reported cases of land guard activities in the area.

Mr Akwasi Wiredu, a victim, said his three-bedroom house at roofing level was pulled down right in front of him for refusing to pay an additional GH¢1, 500.00 as digging fee to a gang who insisted he paid the amount before continuing with his project.

“When I started this project, I paid an amount of GH¢1, 500.00 to this same group of people and I did not see them on my land for months but upon realizing the project was continuing speedily they showed up again to threaten me but I never gave in to them until that fateful day when they came to harass me again for the money,” he lamented.

Another resident who pleaded anonymity indicated that buying a land or starting a project, especially within the Kasoa Millenium City area was a risky move as the land guards were mainly stationed in those areas to harass and attack anyone they could easily get.

He said they even go to the extent of harassing builders for monies for what they describe as “ceiling fan” and “tools fees.”

This he described as unreasonable and heartbreaking, alleging that one Kwesi Alhaji was the leader of all the notorious land guards in the area.

Danjuma Haruna recounted that he was harassed by criminals on his land, close to Nyanyano, to the extent that he had to abandon the site to protect his life and family.

Madam Rita Asuman, a trader at the Kasoa old market, lamented that his 39-year- old son was brutally assaulted about three months ago because he refused to allow some land guards who had visited his site at Opeikuma to carry his building materials away.

They stated that the numerous land disputes  have plunged Gomoa Fetteh, Gomoa Krakraba and the Millennium City into turmoil in the past few days.

Lamenting the increased land grabbing in Kasoa Millennium and Gomoa Fetteh, they noted that these ‘notorious’ land-guards, often seen around various building sites within the land located on Millennium City, Gomoa Krakraba among bothers in the Central Region, destroy working materials including cement bags and building blocks.

The victims of the land-guard attacks, indicated that these land-guards sometimes set ablaze structures and pull down buildings that were at the lintel level.

The land-guards, they continued, also take monies and mobile phones belonging to land developers and their workers at the various sites.

“These sponsored land-guards sometimes take away working tools including wheelbarrows, head pans, shovels amidst the destruction of bags of cement.

“…They [the land- guards] further set building structures ablaze and destroy footings of developers as well as building blocks on sites,” they said.

He also told journalists that some of the victims who are attacked sustain varied degrees of injuries as a result of the beatings they receive in the hands of the land-guards.

They further lamented that they have been attacked on several occasions at their building sites, adding that when they reported the matter, the police paid deaf ears to his complaints.

“Our lives and properties are currently in danger now, and this our worry. Because what baffle us is the unprofessional behaviour of the police officers. The police would be called to arrest a citizen because he/she owes a neighbour, but when there is a theft and it is reported, they refuse to come,” they said.