ABOUT 100 land guards wielding offensive weapons last Friday invaded and marooned the Mile 8 residence of an Accra businessman, Mr Pankaj Pyne, on the Accra -Winneba road, threatening to kill himand settinghis house ablaze if he did not come out from his room.
The panic-stricken businessman, who was holed up in his room for hours, informed his lawyer about his predicament and the lawyer advised him to call the police for help.
The police responded to the SOS call and despatched a 10-member patrol team, led by Chief Inspector Theodore Hlormenu, the Monitor's Commander of the Greater Accra Regional Police, who went to the trouble spot and removed the red bands which hung around the house and some lorry tyres which the land guards had threatened to use to set Mr Pyne's house ablaze.
Narrating his ordeal to the Daily Graphic, Mr Pyne said about 10 a.m. on Friday, July 29, 2011, the land guards besieged his home, calling for his blood.
He said he suspected the issue might be over the ownership of a parcel of land which was acquired by his company, Green Agriculture, in 1972 for crop and poultry farming.
Mr Pyne, who was the National Best Pig Farmer in 1992, said the land was acquired from the James Town Traditional Council for an initial lease of 50 years, which took effect from 1976.
He said in 1974, the company went for a land certificate and decided to go back to the James Town Traditional Council for an extension of the lease to 99 years, which was granted on September 24, 1999.
He said by October 2009, the land certificate had been issued by the Land Tittle Registry to cover that period of time.
According to Mr Pyne, Green Agriculture was later compelled to fold up as a result of the nefarious activities of some land guards and their cohorts.
He said at the moment, “ Green Agriculture is attempting to compel the encroachers to regularise their activities and the consequent result is that land guards are answering through intimidation and harassment as a way of securing the land they had sold illegally to unsuspecting persons.”
He explained that “ for almost 20 years, Green Agriculture has persistently and consistently fought land encroachment but has been overwhelmed by the behaviour of the land guards and other encroachers”.
Mr Pyne, however, said when the police had left the scene after interrogating people around, the group returned to his house, even though they did not arrest anybody, with more fire power and he had since Friday sought refuge outside his home and his family had been under constant harassment since he fled for his dear life.
A police source at the Accra Regional Command confirmed the story and said the case was being handled by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), while a police surveillance team had been put on the land.
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