Richard Benjamin Acquaye, a caretaker of his late Aunt’s property at East Legon in the Greater Accra region has set the record straight that he has not sold his Aunt’s land to Daniel Nii Laryea Martey, the Youth Chief of Teshie as being claimed by him but he rather used financial inducement, lies, deceit and fictitious land documents in a bid to forcibly take possession of the land.
Benjamin Acquaye said Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni started their plot to illegally take over the said land when they asked him whether his Aunt’s land which had a house on it was for sale.
He however told them he (Benjamin Acquaye) would ask his three cousins abroad whether the property would be sold. Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni told him that they are in charge of signature of land documents at Lands Commission.
Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni per the narration of Benjamin Acquaye, also said they had bought ‘all those who matter’ when it comes to taking important decisions at Land Commission and the Ghana Police Service.
Nii Laryea Martey then promised Benjamin Acquaye that if he is able to facilitate the sale of his Aunt’s property to him he would reward him with an amount of Ghc60, 000. Nii Laryea Martey then gave him an amount of Ghc 3,000 to enable him buy call credit to call his cousins abroad.
Benjamin Acquaye told Journalists at a news conference in Accra that, Nii Laryea Martey also gave him an amount of Ghc10, 000 two times on separate occasions.
Nii Laryea Martey according to the account of Benjamin Acquaye also took pictures and details of the obituary posters of his late cousin called Herbert.
Benjamin Acquaye said last year he was surprised when land guards invaded his Aunt’s property to possess it. He said he fought with them and drove them away from the house.
In July 2023, Benjamin Acquaye said during a rainfall around 12 am the land guards came again and destroyed the roof of his Aunt’s house.
Based on that he reported the issue to the police and briefed his cousins abroad about what had happened.
As a result, his cousins came to Ghana and subsequently met the police at the Police headquarters upon invitation. Before the meeting with the police, Benjamin Acquaye said Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni had told him to lie to the police officers in charge of the case that his late cousin Herbert had received 90, 000 dollars from them, which was not true.
In the said meeting with the police officers in charge of the case namely “Power”, Oppong and his cousins from abroad, Benjamin Acquaye said, he lied to the police officers that the late Herbert took 90,000 dollars from Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni.
With the passage of time, Benjamin Acquaye said he realized that he had lied and it was having a negative impact on his life and therefore made another report at the Accra regional police headquarters in order to correct the wrong.
Benjamin Acquaye told CID officers at the regional police headquarters that his narration at the police headquarters was false and that Nii Laryea Martey and Aziz Suhiyni did not even know the late Herbert before he died.
He also told CID officers that he(Benjamin Acquaye) is not the right person to sell his late Aunt’s property and that Nii Laryea Martey wanted to use fictitious land documents in a bid to illegally take over his Aunt’s land.
When the Teshie Youth Chief was contacted to provide evidence to the effect that he gave late Herbert 90, 000 dollars he was unable to do so but rather claimed he also gave Benjamin Acquaye 280,000(two hounded and eighty thousand dollars) for the purchase of the said land.
Nii Laryea Martey promised this reporter to produce bank receipts to show that indeed he gave Benjamin Acquaye the above-mentioned amount but for three days he has failed to fulfill his promise.
Available information to this reporter indicates that Benjamin Acquaye has served Nii Laryea Martey with injunction letter from the court to stop him from developing the land.
But the Teshie Youth Chief has treated letter from the court with contempt and has rather employed the services of a police officer and a soldier to watch the land and drive away anybody who claimed the land under dispute belongs to him or her and has started developing the land.
