Nana Kwadwo Ntow II, Chief of Gyankama located between Peduase and Aburi in the Eastern Region, has bemoaned the upsurge of activities of land guards.
He appealed to the security agencies to step up their efforts towards curbing violence arising out of land disputes.
According to the chief, activities of land guards are heightening tension at Water Works between Ayi Mensah and Peduase, Mile 19, where there is about 1,500 acres of land belonging to Gyankama.
A High Court in Koforidua has ordered all development activities to cease until the substantive case is properly disposed off.
At a news conference at Gyankama last week, Nana Ntow II said in spite of the injunction, some persons were attempting to use land guards to sell lands in the affected areas and advised prospective developers to be cautious in dealing with those purported to be selling lands.
He said “there are people claiming to be chiefs in Aburi-Atweasi, who are believed to be behind the introduction of land guards to Mile 19 but I would like to state that those who are dealing with these people must be extra careful because the lands belong to Gyankama.”
According to the chief, the Koforidua High Court, presided over by Justice G.S. Suurbaareh, issued an order for interlocutory injunction in a suit titled: Nana Kwadwo Ntow and Nana Kwakyewaa Ofori I versus Abusuapanin Adu Kwaku and 13 others.
He said the court on March 2013 specifically restrained the defendants and their assigns from “interfering with the land in dispute or disposing of any part pending the final determination of the suit.”
Nana Ntow II further said that the Gyankama stool lawyers, pursuant to the order, wrote to both the Lands Commission in Koforidua and the Deeds Registry of the commission to caution them about the activities of Adu Kwaku and his group, and requested that the state institution ceases the registration of lands in the area in dispute until the issues were settled.
“The lands under reference include all that lands called Oyoko Clan of Gyankama lands bounded on the north-east by the Aburi-Oyibi Road, south-east by the Dodowa-Adenta Road, north-west partly by the Aburi-Accra Road, containing an approximate total area of 15,404 acres,” Sir Asante-Ansong & Co, lawyers for the Gyankama chief, had said in the letter.
The chief said that he was pursuing all legal means to ensure that the people of Gyankama are not shortchanged in any deal.
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