Land Owners At Bamma Ayikai Doblo Call For Speedy Trial of 6 Land guards

 A call has been made to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh to immediately intervene in the arrest of six (6) persons suspected to be land guard operatives in Ayikai Doblo in Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

The six were also reported to have unlawfully destroyed building structures that belonged to the land developers on legally acquired lands from the Ayikai Doblo Stool situated at the Bamma-Ayikai Doblo community.

As of now, the six suspected land guards, who were on the police enquiry bail, are yet to be processed before the law court for allegedly fighting police officers and causing damage to properties at Amasaman District Police Command.

The call to the IGP was made by scores of landowners and developers whose building structures were unlawfully destroyed at the Bamma-Ayikai Doblo community by these suspected land guards.

Mr James Laryea Ashia, who claimed to be the Principal Attorney for Nii Adama Pataku Family Lands at Ayikai Doblo Bamma community together with five suspected land guards were arrested on the premises of Amasaman District Police Command on Friday, March 19, 2021, for committing various offences which were an affront to the laws of this country.

The other arrested persons were Oto Rasta, aka Kpakpotse, Nii Amposah and two women whose names were not identified as of the time of filing this report. 

The five persons who were arrested were believed to be working for Mr Ashia.

The arrest of these persons has been captured in a short video that is in possession of Soireenews.com.

The video shows how these culprits were arrested on Friday, March 19, 2021, by the police at Amasaman, and when they consequently took the law into their hands and fought police officers at Amasaman District Police Command.

According to reports, the suspected land guards were invited to the police station following a complaint lodged by some individual land developers and organisations against them that they (acting on the direct orders of Mr James Laryea Ashia) had unlawfully destroyed their building structures.

However, the affected landowners have alleged that Mr Ashia has engaged the services of these notorious land guards led by Nii Rasta aka Kpakpotse to demolish all building structures in the area.

But Mr Ashia has claimed that he has been given a Power of Attorney by the Nii Adama Pataku Family in Ayikai Doblo headed by Alhaji Abdullah Shorwumi Williams to take care of Bamma lands in Ayikai Doblo.

The landowners went on to add that the self-styled caretaker of Bamma lands and some self-seeking elders at Ayikai Doblo had refused to allow individual land developers and organisations who gratuitously acquired their lands through Principal Attorney of Ayikai Doblo Stool, Nii Doodo Amu aka T.J Azonto and other elders in Ayikai Doblo from developing their lands in Bamman.

According to the land developers, they legally bought their lands from the original owners and custodian of the Ayikai Doblo community under the Akamajay Divisional Council in Accra.

Surprisingly, when the suspected land guards together with their ring leader were invited to the police station for their statements to be taken by the police, they rather vented their spleen on the police officers, beating them severely at the station, as this incident is captured in the video.

This action consequently led to the arrest of the six suspected land guard operatives. But the affected landowners are calling for a speedy trial of these perpetrators of various heinous crimes in their community.

They were worried that these land guards were still not processed before the court, albeit their crimes were very grave.

"Look, we have heard currently that the court has jailed Akuapem Poloo for exposing nude pictures of her own son on social media, but the land guards who fought police officers and caused damages to police properties were still not taking to the court,”  they fumed.

"So, we are calling on IGP to ask the Amasaman Police District Commander and prosecutor why they were delaying taking the case to the court?" they quizzed.

Meanwhile, the elders of Ayikai Doblo insist tracts of lands in the area were stool lands under the Akamajay Divisional Council in Accra.

They noted that claims by Mr Ashia that he is caretaker of Ayikai Doblo Stool lands were completely false, saying that Mr Laryea did not have any traditional capacity to hold that crucial position in Ayikai Doblo.

They pointed out that the long-standing fictitious move by Mr Ashia to describe the youth and some principal elders who are custodian landowners of Ayikai Doblo Stool lands as land guards was ostensibly to paint the people black which would give him the chance to sell Ayikai Dobo Stool Lands to some unsuspecting land developers.

“Our land business transactions are land-guards free,” the elders said and accused the Amasaman District Police Command and some officers in the Ghana Police Service Headquarters in Accra of assisting Mr Laryea Ashia and his followers to cause mayhem in Ayikai Doblo.

They stated that since his return from Nigeria, Mr Laryey Ashia has been causing fear in the community.

The worried landowners indicated that Mr Laryea Ashia, according to the elders is responsible for the many injuries and deaths that had occurred over land disputes in Ayikai Doblo and called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to warn the police from the Amasaman, Accra Police Headquarters and Airport Police District Commands to stop meddling in land affairs in Ayikai Doblo instead of being peace-maintaining officers.

They alleged that a team of police officers from the Ghana Police Service Headquarters, a couple of months ago, was hired by Mr Laryea Ashia to unlawfully attack workers of the land developers.

According to them, the police officers recently came to the site with two Ghana Police Service Toyota pick-up vehicles with registration Numbers: GP4639, ash colour, and GP 4652, black colour, and upon alighting, amidst holding pump-action guns started destroying foundations of building structures.

  Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu, Greater Accra Regional Correspondent