Ernest Addo writes
When the smoke cleared after the almost two hours gunshots ordered by the notorious sand-wining boss, four bodies lay crumpled at the sand-winning site located at Akwane-Dobro, off the Nsawam-Adoagyire-Aburi road in the eastern region.
And the man with the smoking gun, who also ordered the shootout, Sam Astu Forson, popularly known as ‘Alanyo’ once the parliamentary candidate hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Amasaman constituency in Accra, has fled, with intelligence suggesting he may be leaving the country through neighbouring Togo in the night.
Police in Nsawam, in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipality are on manhunt for suspect Sam Astu Forson, the Chief Executive Officer of Summertide Company Limited, to aid investigations into the circumstances under which he ordered his boys on a sandwinning site to shoot the people who had been sent by the Aburi Chief, Otoobuor Djan Kwasi II, through his Mponuahene to stop the illegal sandwinning on his land.
Last Tuesday, at 1 o’clock, responding to a distress call from his farming subjects, the Aburi chief sent his boundary chief of the Adonteng division, along with his subjects, to visit a site to intervene and ensure that peace prevailed at the site where the illegal sandwinners were harassing the farmers.
Upon arriving at the site however, according to eye witnesses, one visibly suspended between disbelief and dread, a group of armed men, wielding G3s and AK47s, allegedly acting on orders of their boss-Samuel Atsu Forson, aka Alanyo, who was not at the site, opened fire on the visitors, resulting in a chaotic scene and the deaths of two individuals.
Out of the blue, Alanyo appeared at the site and upon learning that his elder brother Togbe Agar Sermaglo, who was supervising work at the sand-winning site had sustained wounds resulting from his order when he had not reached the site and dispatched to the hospital, further ordered his boys to shoot the delegation that followed the Mponuahene, leading to the death the other two.
The New Crusading GUIDE intelligence sources say when Alanyo realised one of the guys who was shot had not died, he allegedly pulled out his side-arm and shot him dead.
In Akwane Dobro now, silence lingers like a fog, with farmers and residents still reeling under the impact of illegal sand winning on their livelihoods and the latest deaths, as many whisper the question: why would anyone kill a fellow human being over sand which does not even belong to him?
The community is frustrated with the destruction of their farmlands, which have affected crops like pawpaw, cassava, and maize.
Until Alanyo is arrested, the community waits in mourning and stress the need for urgent action to address the issue of illegal sand winning and its impact on local communities.
Stay tuned.
