Some residents of Appolonia, off the Oyibi and Dodowa road in Accra are up in arms against the Ghana Police Service for doing little in preventing deadly attacks on residents by landguards in the area.
They allege the attacks were orchestrated by one Divine Abladey Dortey (owner of ETODAD Company Limited) and his thugs, maiming many land owners and their workers working on their legitimately acquired lands from Castlegate Estate Company.
On Friday, 8 August 2023, some construction workers were brutally attacked by these thugs, while working on a piece of land at the Appolonia area. The attack led to head and other bodily injuries to these unarmed individuals working to earn their living.
The victims swiftly reported the incident to the Katamanso Police which is under the Ashaiman New York Division. However, though the perpetrators were well known to the police, they have refused to initiate any arrest on these miscreants.
A member of the Association, Mr. Afa Ababio noted that members of the association have lost faith completely in the Police in the area for their underhand dealings and attitude towards various issues of the association brought to their attention.
“For the Police in this area, we don’t have any trust in them” he insisted
Mr. Ababio stated that, the members of the Association after a search of the land title holder at the Lands Commission, confirmed Nii Mansro, who sold the land to the them, as the rightful owner of the Appolonia land. He noted however that, after some court judgement redirecting the possession of the land to the Appolonia stool, the current chief, Nii Amoebi and Divine Abladey started writing notice of possession on all walls and buildings on the Appolonia land.
The retiree, intimated that no resident of the area was served with any court document before notice of ‘Possession by Court” was embossed on their buildings without recourse to proper procedure and law.
“The new chief; we don’t know him and have never seen him, and you just unleash Land-guards on us staying on the land. We are calling on the government to do something about the happenings, so as to avert any bloody clash sometime soon” he served notice.
However, a petition presented by the members of the Association to the Tema Regional Police Command, indicated that, the police had been duly informed about the ill-treatment meted out to innocent individuals on the Appolonia land. Though the Tema Regional Command ordered the arrest of Felix Abladey-the alleged leader of the landguards, no arrest have been affected till date.
The group has served notice of a mammoth demonstration in the coming days, should government and other stakeholders continue turn deaf ears to their plights.
Meanwhile, in a phone conversation with the Police Investigator on the case, Mad. Comfort Dompreh, she insisted that, investigations were on-going and that a police report would be made available to the media upon request. She however declined to comment further.
