Documents available to New Crusading Guide have revealed some officials from the Ghana Railway Company (GRC) making frantic efforts to illegally snatch a parcel of land at West Ridge from its owners.
This paper can confirm that these officials, last week stormed the land at West Ridge in Accra to carry out a demolition exercise.
The GRC officials arrived on the said land which has an old apartment on it, to carry out the demolishing exercise on grounds that the land belongs to them.
New Crusading Guide gathered that the land in question initially belonged to the GRC but a company called Schienenfahrzeuge Export-Import sued and won a case against the State Corporation and an auction and judicial sale of the property was subsequently duly done, and the process was never challenged by the GRC.
However, the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA) came back to the land after years of that legal battle, saying that all railway assets hitherto held by the GRC became vested in the authority and, therefore, the said land was going to be redeveloped into their headquarters, in spite of the fact that the said land was officially auctioned.
Last week, a bulldozer was sighted parked near the entrance, with about 20 staff from the GRC wearing reflectors on the land.
Raymond Dey, an official from FosuGyeabor& Co. law firm said contrary to claims by the GRC officials, the land belonged to a company called Terraform Development Ltd.
According to him, the property belonged to the GRC who later lost ownership of the land in a suit, and consequently had the land auctioned in 2011.
He showed a certificate of attachment by the sheriffs of the court and a certificate of purchase to buttress his claims, saying “it is now on this basis that today the property is now for Terraform Development Ltd.”
Mr. Dey narrated that, “We were here when they came last week and asked us to vacate the place, and that they wanted to demolish the place. Based on the engagements we had with them, we informed them that the property had been auctioned and purchased by Terraform. We furnished them with all the relevant documents including the judgments after the full trial, certificates of purchase among others but still they are here.”
“They were here three days ago; they were here yesterday, and they are here today,” he bemoaned.
Mr. Dey said the GRC had initially wanted to use force to claim the land, saying “they wanted to use force to enter that is why we have parked our cars at the entrance of the land to deny them entry.”
“We were not expecting them to be here today. Even today, they came with a bulldozer, machines and an ambulance. This is a sign that a certain operation is going to be carried out. We are very apprehensive here. We are not comfortable because from the way they are behaving, it appears they are determined to do something. How can a whole state institution behave this way without recourse to the laws of the land,” he added.
Meanwhile, this paper’s efforts to speak to any official from the GRC proved futile as one Mr. Asante, who is said to be an official of the authority, and who led the GRC delegation to the site, blatantly refused to speak with the excuse that he did not know how the Paper got the information about the supposed operation.
