[ 2021-03-13 ]

Soldier land grab: 'If La youth rise, there's little we can do' – Elders warn
A delegation from the La traditional council has
appealed to President Akufo-Addo to call the
military high command to order, following a
near-confrontation between the traditional
authority and some army men on Friday, 12 March
2020 at Tse-Addo in the Greater Accra region.

The scuffle occurred as a result of claims of
encroachment on a 275-acre stool land that is yet
to be delineated.

Consensus was reached by a tripartite committee
set up in December 2020 under the auspices of the
Chief of Staff to retrieve some 225 acres of the
land for the traditional council while a buffer is
created along the military cemetery enclave around
the headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces at
Burma Camp with the remaining 50 acres.

This, the committee believed, will lay the
protracted land dispute to rest.

However, even before the directives from Jubilee
House were enforced, some unknown developers were
spotted within the embargoed area, occasionally
clearing the area for unknown reasons.

The situation prompted a snap check by a
delegation from the La traditional council, which
stormed the area to halt the activities.

A kingmaker of the council, Nii Adjei Koofeh IV,
who spoke on behalf of the elders, noted that
“our youth went to meet the executive secretary
of the president and then he assured us that you
will see to it that things will be done well and
that they will call the military to order but they
are still working”.

“So, today we came here to look at what is
actually happening after our attention was drawn
to what was happening here yesterday. We are
coming to see for ourselves what is happening
today”.

The leader of the delegation, who expressed
surprise at the alleged activities by the
military, sent a distress message to President
Akufo-Addo to order the military to show good
faith to the arrangements set in place by the
tripartite committee.

“We have come a long way. And, as I said, we are
law-abiding citizens. We've given our due for
national development and we don't think we should
be mistreated.

“So, we are telling the president to attach
sense of urgency to this issue because we are
leaders of the town and we shouldn't let those
that we are leading lose hope in us”.

He further explained that the area under dispute
only forms a minute portion of other outstanding
land issues to be resolved by the central
government “and we are calling on the president
to act now because when the people of La rise, we,
the leaders, will have little to do”.

The group is scheduled to meet the Chief of Staff
within the week for further dialogue on the matter
since an engagement between the delegation and
some high officials from the Ghana armed forces on
site did not yield desirable results.

Source - Class fm

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