Teshie Traditional Authorities Warn Land Grabbers; Demand Reclamation Of Lands From Gov't

STATEMENT PRESENTED BY NII ANANG AMARTEY ON BEHALF OF NII KWEITIA WE – ANUMANSAH OF TESHIE AND AMARTSE WE ON THE MATTERS CONCERNING LAND GRABBING PROCLIVITY OF MINISTRY OF LANDS AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND CLEMENT GYATO ON WEDNESDAY 7TH OCTOBER 2020 AT KWEIMAN

Members of the press, distinguished ladies and gentlemen; I am honoured to welcome you to this very important press briefing to put before the general public, more importantly the government of the Republic of Ghana the present happenings on our land, which formed part of the Amrahia dairy farms.

After series of petitions to the government to revert our land back to us after the project for which the land was compulsorily acquired no longer exist, the president had eventually acted on our request by asking Ministry of lands and natural resources and Lands commission to ensure a smooth release but unfortunately, the sector minister, Asoma Cheremeh is attaching lackadaisical attitude to the release process in a bid to cover what had already taken place on our land to avoid being exposed.

Members of the press, we would like to make it clear to the president that our portion of the land he asked lands ministry and lands commission to release to us has already been sold by Clement Gyato, the caretaker, with the connivance of the lands ministry and as a matter of fact, construction works are currently going on there by this very same Clement Gyato and his cohorts just as it happened at “Aviation, Adenta”. We would also like to put it on record that compensation has never been paid over the land since its acquisition by the state in 1970, hence, we see no reason why the lands ministry allowed Clement Gyato to embark on such irritating venture.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we have also been reliably informed that lands minister, Asoma Cheremeh is doling out portions of the dairy farms land to some of his associates in a bid to achieve his political ambition.

We are also not happy about the involvement of lawyer Kwame Gyan in our meetings with the lands minister because his record of aviation land matters was so disheartening and we do not want similar things to occure in our case, yet, the minister is bent on pursuing the agenda inimical to us as custodians of our ancestral lands.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have noticed during our meetings with the lands ministry that, the lands minister, Clement Gyato and lawyer Kwame Gyan have hatched a well-rehearsed plan to foment trouble contrary to the directives of the president.

Since our last meeting with the lands ministry which took place on the 22nd of September 2020, we have never heard from the minister again even though he told us we shall hear from him; all we later heard and witnessed with our eyes was Clement Gyato moving his equipment and his land guards to our land to continue his construction work simply because we did not grant the request of formation of “Trust” to administer our land. Ladies and gentlemen, a trust lawyer Kwame Gyan and Clement Gyato requested to be part of had already been constituted on the advice of the late Most Rev. Dr. Samuel Asante Antwi, and registered at Registrar General Department.

Clearly, they want to be part of the Trust to enable them dissipate our land as they have done to Agbawe family, owners of Aviation land at Adenta, an incident that had lawyer Kwame Gyan and his chambers sued and allegedly found guilty of expropriating Agbawe family land. We have learnt a big lessons from their exploit at Adenta, hence, we do not want such to occure.

By the information available to us, together with the court ruling on lawyer Kwame Gyan’s case; lawyer Kwame Gyan was alleged to have connived with Clement Gyato to shortchange the owners of Ghana Civil Aviation land at Adenta, hence, we are not comfortable with their presence and involvement in our matter; because perceptibly, they have already started scheming to create similar problem and the lands minister is also encouraging them by the deportment he is exhibiting.

As indicated earlier, we don’t remember involving lawyer Kwame Gyan in our affairs for him and Clement Gyato to be scheduling meetings for us at Clement Gyato’s office as if they were the ones mandated by the president to look into our matter and do the needful.

By the above issues raised, we demand to know whether president Nana Akuffo Addo mandated lawyer Kwame Gyan and Clement Gyato to be part of the release process.

We are indigenes of Kweiman, hence we are not prepared to be relocated to different land owned by different community.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we would like to also inform you that plans are being put in place with other neighboring communities facing similar challenges to embark on a four day continuous demonstration to protect our territorial integrity. We shall communicate the date for the commencement of this demonstration to you as soon as possible. What it takes to embark on such exercise is to notify the police but not to seek their permission; and that we shall certainly do.

Members of the press, we thank you very much for your attention and look forward to your swift action.