Appolonia, Kuberkrom Land Dispute: Land Commission’s Boundary Report Must Bring Finality

Until around 2014, there was no dispute over the ownership of lands at Kuberkrom, a community at Atadeka in the Kpone-Katamanso district in the Greater Accra Region. Development of the place was moving smoothly without disturbances.

The Appolonia Stool that has its land fallen within the Kpone Tradional Council land title also never made claims of the lands under the control of the people of Kuberkrom led by the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family.

There was no boundary dispute between the two towns since it was a common understanding that the two towns knew their boundaries and never trespassed each other’s boundary for whatever purpose.

According to settlers in the community, along the line around 2014, one Seth Kwame Sallah and a Setho Classic Engineering Company limited, a supposed Estate Company emerged from nowhere and started laying claims to the lands which were commonly believed to belong to the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family of the community.

He claimed that his company, Setho Classic Engineering Company limited, acquired the lands from the Apolonia Stool and immediately established an office in Atadeka and started taking possession of the lands. He and his company began selling off the lands to developers and forcefully preventing people who acquired their portions of land from the Royal Family of the community from developing.

This move by the company and Sallah attracted serious resistance from another Estate company, Naak Estate limited and HFC Bank. Naak Estate claimed it also bought the land from the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family, who are chiefs of the Kuberkro Township and sold same to HFC Bank.

Settlers noted that this action by Seth Kawme Sallah and his company on one hand, and the strong resistance from Naak Estate and HFC Bank on the other hand, sparked serious violence in the community over the ownership of the land.

According to them, that was the beginning of the use of violent land guards activities in the once peaceful community as Seth Kwame Sallah was constantly accused of deploying their ruthless services to chase out developers who did not acquired their portions of land through him or his company. They alleged that he was using the land guards to fight the other faction that was also laying claims to the same land and to assert his authority on the land.

Even though, the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family and the people of the community organized several demonstrations against what they described an outright illegal seizure of their lands and charged the police to act, Seth Kwame Sallah called their bluff and continued taking possession of the lands.

Police Interventions

Information from the Ghana police service indicates that the police in the Tema and Greater Accra regions have severally intervened to forestall peace and to help the parties find a lasting solution to the disputed land but had not made headway in past years until recently.

According to sources, COP Mrs. Beatrice Zansiri (Rtd) who was the Tema Police Regional Commander at the time the violence over the ownership of the land started in 2014, in an attempt to solve the problem permanently engaged the Lands commission to determine the boundary between Kpone-Appolonia lands and kuberkrom lands.

The sources said, after the exercise was carried out, Seth Kwame Sallah and his company refused to appear before the Commander and personnel from the Land Commission for the boundary report to be read for all of them so as to bring a finality to the dispute.

They said, he rather dragged the then Regional Commander to a High Court in Accra. This, according to the sources, frustrated Mrs Zansiri from solving the problem until she was transferred back to the police Head office.

Other sources also have it that COP Mr George Tuffour (Rtd), another Tema Police Regional Commander also conducted the same exercise but Seth Kawme Sallah and his company again refused to appear for the report determining the boundary.

Police Inspector Ankamah, of Property Fraud Unit at Headquarters also try to conduct the same exercise after a complaint was lodged by Seth Kwame Sallah himself but he failed to make the payment for the exercise to be carried out.

According to another source at the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Anti Land Guard Unit also to forestall peace in the area invited parties to allow the disputed land to be picked and same search conducted at Land Commission but he again refused.

Question our sources at the police are asking is, why is Seth Kwame Sallah who is claiming that the land is his and is duly registered would not want to collaborate with the security agencies and the Land Commission to determine the boundary for peace to prevail for all these years. What is he afraid of?

Current Tema Regional Police Commander Efforts To Forestall Peace

According to sources at the town, when the current Regional Commander, DCOP Mr Daniel Kwame Afriyie took office, there another near violent clash between Seth Kwame and his company on one hand and one Mr Francsi Adu King and the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family over ownership of a parcel of the land within the disputed land.

Mr King said he also acquired part of the land from the Royal Family and when he tried to take possession of the land, he was resisted by some persons alleged to be land guards deployed by Seth Kwame Sallah.

According to residents of the area, it almost degenerated into bloody clashes, but the Regional Commander moved in with his men and asked both factions to stay clear off the land so that his office would investigate and bring finality to the aged dispute.

He therefore, invited both factions including representatives from the Land Commission and demanded from the two factions, Mr Adu King who had acquired the land from the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family and Setho Classic which also claimed to have acquired same land from Kpone Traditional Council to submit their documents.

This was to enable the Land Commission to pick the land and establish the boundary as to whether it falls within the Kpone Traditional Council land title or the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man site plan in order to resolve the problem.

The factions agreed to his request and presented their documents and the Land Commission together with police and the parties involved carried out the exercise sometime last month.

The Land Commission Report

Finally, on September 7 the Land Commission report on the boundary was read to both parties in the Regional Commander’s office.

Present at the meeting included the Regional Police Commander, DCOP Mr Daniel Kwame Afriyie, the Regional Police Command (2 I C), the Regional Crime Officer, Gideon Darko and Francis Adu King. The others were Seth Kwame Sallah Lawyer, Nii Adu Kofi, Seth Kwame SALLAH Son and Asante Awuah from the Land Commission (Surveyor).

The report as read to the parties made it cleared that the disputed land doesn’t fall within the Kpone Traditional Council as being claimed by Seth Kwame Sallah and his company bringing a finality to the dispute over the land ownership.

“Both land as shown and surveyed for Seth Kwame Sallah and his cadastral plan do not fall in Kpone Traditional Council Certificate but rather fall within the site plan of Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family (1686.3 Acres).

Land surveyed for Adu King falls within the site plan of Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family,” the report stated.

But after the report Seth Kawme Sallah appears to have again rejected the boundary report and is accusing the police administration of meddling in land issues.