Police Officer Bends Law To Seize Land

A SENIOR Police officer and lawyer at the Police Headquarters, Chief Superintendent Baffour Apenteng, has reportedly taken the law into his own hands and ordered for the destruction of a fence wall, a six bedroom house under construction and, a chamber and hall house without any court order.

The complaint, Abdul Razak Yussif, a Ghanaian based in Oslo-Norway said the action of the law enforcement officer could best be described as an abuse of power since there was no court order and there were legal documents covering that piece of land on which C/Supt Apenteng destroyed the buildings and the fence.

Mr. Yussif said on Thursday, February 21, 2018, some residents in the area informed him C/Supt Apenteng and his men had arrived on the property on the same day with a bulldozer and a pick-up vehicle with registration number UE 471/17 to raze the buildings and the fence wall to the ground.

Narrating his ordeal to the newsmen, Mr Yussif said he bought the said plot of land from the Abbeyman Family in May 18, 2009, after a search conducted prove the land belonged to the rightful owners and has since obtained an indenture on the land and that in 2015, he erected a fence wall, fixed a gate put up a chamber and hall building to house a caretaker.

Mr Yussif said C/Supt Apenteng is a known neighbour and both of them had been exchanging greetings until last year when “I received a call from him in Norway that my land belongs to him but I ignored him and cut the call.”

He said sometime in 2016, Landline Property brought in a lady claiming the said land belonged to her and that she bought it from Landline Properties but “when I showed her my documents, she went and never came back”.

Mr Yussif added that in 2017, another man surfaced that he bought the same land from Landline Property and “when I showed him a judgment obtained by the Abbeyman Family over the area, he also ran away. Then they went to hatch a plan with Supt Apenteng to claim the land from me.” 

“Then days later I had a call from my caretaker, Mr Prosper Amewugah, that someone has put his chippings in front of my property sometime in December so I quickly instructed him to get me a video of what had happened,” he said.

He said “on December 28, 2018, C/Supt Apenteng, in a Rambo style, arrested my boy for one-and-a-half days without food nor water but it took the intervention of my brother, Mr William Acheampong, to go to the Police Headquarters to grant him bail.

“My boy was taken to Osu Police Station instead and so my brother had to pay GH₡200.00 for transporting him back to headquarters for bail, so it infuriated me and I bought myself a ticket to Ghana.”

Mr Yussif said “when I came I saw my lawyer, who told me I should rather go and work and that he will petition the Inspector General of Police over the matter.”

“So I petitioned the Police Intelligent and Professional Standard (PIPS) and began work on the property. I have finished foundations, fillings, have used 12 trips of sand and 4000 blocks, leaving 2000 inside the house. Other items destroyed as a result of the demolition by C/Supt Apenteng and his men include two trips of sand and one trip of chippings outside the property but close to the fence wall,” he stated.

He said while at PIPS on Thursday afternoon, February 21, 2019, signing the petition, “I got a call that my property was being demolished by C/Supt Apenteng and his men.”

He said after the demolition, “I made an official report to the Greater Accra Regional Police but no arrest has been made since and stated that my lawyer has taken up the matter and has instituted a court action against C/Supt Apenteng.” 

But when contacted on phone to react to the issue, C/Supt Apenteng said, “I don’t know what you are talking about please; I don’t know anything about that. Thank you”, and hung up on the reporter.