The Chief of Mpehuasem, Mantse Nii Torgbor Obodai VI at a press conference held on Monday, April, 18, 2022, alleged the abuse of state power in the demolition of properties of legitimate land owners and causing threat of danger to residents in his jurisdiction by persons claiming to be mandated by the lands commission.
Despite claims by the lands commission that its recent operations in the Mpehuasem area is aimed at stopping encroachment on government lands, Mr Ahiayibor maintains that he has become the target of some individuals including persons at the ministry of lands and natural resources, and the lands commission as well as private individuals seeking to arrogate his land for their private benefits.
According to him, he has relevant documents including a land title covering the 4.86-acre land which he has since leased portions to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
Speaking from his base in Europe, Mr Ahiayibor stated that he purchased the lands in the area over 21-years ago and has since then through his lawyers acquired valid documents from the lands commission to validate his ownership of the land.
According to Mr Ahiayibor, there has been in recent years attempts by individuals with personal interest hiding behind the powers of the lands commission to dishonestly take over his land.
“If it is government land how come all the searches, I conducted at the same Lands Commission when I was applying for land title did not show anything as such? I have in my possession over 15 correspondences between me and the land Commission between 2007 to 2011. Land Commission was dealing with me on multiple requests on the property. I went through all that and a genuine land title was issued to me. Nobody ever said the land is a government land. I have file numbers and all the genuine documents.
“I have yellow cards of when I lodged the lands at the Lands Commission. When I lodged that yellow card, the Lands Commission said they are multiple requests and that there were individual names on it. The lands commission never said it is a government land, and I have correspondence with lands commission regarding those lands from 2007 as well as a search report that shows it wasn’t government land before a title was issued to me,” he stated.
Mr Ahiayibor said he had peacefully owned the land in question until somewhere in 2015, when he had invested huge amounts of money into the land between 2005 and 2006, including constructing drainages, before some individuals started to fight him and others over the land.
“I secured the land by constructing drainages throughout the entire land with my own money. I spent roughly €200,000 euros to construct 253 metres of drainage after which I also drenched the entire land to make it habitable because it was a flooded area. I contracted the Hydrological Service Department to undertake the construction of the drains and drench. In all, I spent about the equivalent of $400,000 dollars at the time where the exchange rate was €1 euro to $2 dollars, and did all the work on the land and no government came to claim the land.
“I lived peacefully, there was no litigation until somewhere in 2015 when McDan came to arrogate himself some parts of my land. That was where my troubles started,” he said.
He added that a court cleared him as a legal owner of the land during the pre-trial with McDan and that his woes worsened after he, the owner sold a portion of the land to the UPSA.
“During my battle with McDan in 2015, he (McDan) told me in the face that he was supposed to be the chief of Labadi and if he has encroached a small portion of such a big land which I have come from the Volta Region to buy, I shouldn’t fight him because if I do, he will ensure I lose the entire land. That is the warning McDan gave me. He said I am an ewe who has come all the way from the Volta Region to acquire such a big land so if I resist his encroachment, he will make sure I lose all of it.”
He alleged that McDan has continued to fight him for his land through various quarters and that in 2019 McDan met him and Labadi Chiefs in MacDan’s office demanding that he, Ahiayibor pays amount of money to the Labadi Chiefs which he declined. McDan later influenced the Labadi chiefs to send him to court which is still pending and now McDan continues to pursue his property with the support of persons at the lands commission who have now resorted to using state power to push their agenda.
“He (McDan) will always come out to say he has a lot of lands and is not interested in anybody’s land. Meanwhile he went to court three months ago represented by his lawyer Sheikh on that same land which is still being heard in the court at the moment. McDan’s strategy is to delay court proceedings while they carry on with this heinous demolitions on our lands. They are the faceless people behind the so-called reclamation of state lands and it is for nothing but their selfish interests. These are persons being aided by dishonest civil servants. They are already out there looking for buyers,” he alleged.
He however insists that he is ever ready to battle out in court with whoever wields an interest in his land including person hiding behind state institutions to pursue their agenda.
“Now they want to claim that the title is fake. But if the title is fake how come I was able to transfer a title to UPSA? How do you now come and tell me it is a government land? When I was investing my money constructing the drainage and all where were all these greedy individuals? It all because of their greediness, they are just greedy. I have owned the land for more than 20 years and I say emphatically that it is my land and not government land.
“But I am ready to meet them in court,” Mr Ahiayibor emphasized.
In April 2021, GhanaWeb TV featured some property owners of Mpehuasem on #SayItLoud who stated that their properties had been illegally destroyed by persons they alleged to be land guards.
In his press conference on Monday, the Chief of Mpehuasem, Nii Torgbor Obodai Ampao VI, said his residents are currently the subjects of unlawful and targeted destruction of properties by some individuals under the guise of undertaking land reclamation exercise on behalf of the state.
According to the chief, the residents on Monday, April 26 and Tuesday, April 27, 2021, woke up to “some persons claiming to have been sent by the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry, with an acclaimed backing of the Ministry of National Security, led by one Clement Gyato, a known notorious Land Guard who disguises himself as Land entrepreneur, entered our properties without any notice to us and caused massive demolition of our properties.”
Nii Torgbor Obodai Ampao VI stated that the perpetrators of the April 2021 demolition almost a year down the line, have once again stormed his jurisdiction this time with the backing of some dishonest public and civil servants at the Ministry of Lands and Lands Commission to revisit his subjects with inhumane and destructive demolitions of homes.
The Chief then appealed to the Ministry and the President to come to the aid of innocent citizens who through their toils have acquired these pieces of land and quizzed the land commission, “to what intended purpose are these small small disjointed lands being reclaimed for?”
