…As Kwabenya Traditional Authority, Ga East Assembly Chase Him Over Illegal Land Grabbing
By Alex Boye
The founder and leader of the All People’s Congress Party (APC), Hassan Ayariga, is being accused by the chiefs and people of the Kwabenya Traditional Area and the Ga East Municipal Assembly for illegally grabbing government lands.
The huge acre land situated at Hatcho, an Accra suburb, the two authorities said, have warned Mr. Ayariga to back off developing the land without due diligence but the man who holds virtually all the positions in his political party would not budge.
The authorities said the land belongs to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and therefore could not understand why Mr. Ayariga would continue using his political connections to bamboozle his way on to the land.
Queen mother of the Kwabenya Traditional Area, Naa Korkoi Dugbatey, speaking with the media, described Mr. Ayariga as a thief and therefore advised him to as a matter of urgency vacate the land before they hand him over to their gods.
“Mr. Ayariga, besides using his political connections to harass us over the land has also deplored over hundred macho men from the Northern Region to attack us whenever we visit the site” the queen mother alleged.
Naa Dugbatey also said Mr. Ayariga has on several occasions threatened to shoot us whenever we visited the land.
The Queen mother called on President Nana Akuffo Addo to intervene in the matter to help avoid any chaos between them and Mr. Ayariga in the area.
The Paramount Chief of the Kwabenya-Musuku Traditional Area, Nii Mensah Dzanyogo I, also added his voice by declaring that the youth in the area are ready to battle Mr. Ayariga if he refuses to vacate the land within the next three days.
For his part, the Coordinating Director of the Ga East Municipal Assembly, Adams Esihene, described Mr. Ayariga’s attitude as strange but assured they would use their power as a public institution to eject him from the land.
“We cannot relax as an assembly to allow Mr. Ayariga to ignore the law to take over lands belonging to the government” Mr. Esihene stated.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Mr. Ayariga described all the allegations as false, saying that he legally acquired the land from the Odai Ntow family at Kwabenya and therefore called on the queen mother and the authorities at the assembly to take the issue to court for redress.
“I acquired land legally to establish a modern hospital which would go a long way to address health challenges in the area and could not understand why unknown people should turn and be attacking me” he hinted.
