NDC Guru grabs Sakumono Ramsar site

A high-profile personality at the Flagstaff House is allegedly using his ‘power’ to prevail on some state institutions in the Tema metropolis to destroy a portion of the Sakumo Ramsar Site at Community 3 so that he could construct what is believed to be a factory and some flats.

The political figure, who is hiding behind a Chinese company, is said to be pushing the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to accommodate the Chinese labour force, who will be working on the Tema Port Expansion Project, located some few metres away from the site.

Interestingly, the person within the corridors of power is purportedly using a grader belonging to the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) to perpetrate the unlawful act.

The project, according to residents, is suspected to comprise a cement factory, a container terminal and flats; and is being carried out by Kilimanjaro Logistics Limited on over 10 acres of wetland near the SSNIT flats, close to the Titanic Beach along the Tema Beach Road.

It appears the Ramsar Convention which was signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran – mainly because of concerns in the 1960s over serious decline in the population of migratory waterfowls and their habitats, has been disregarded by encroachers in Ghana.

Ghana ratified the Convention on February 22, 1988 and acceded to it on June 22, the same year. Ghana and other contracting parties have the responsibility to conserve wetlands.

A visit to the place, near the celebrity Golf Course, revealed that artisans such as masons and carpenters, were working day and night to claim a portion of the reserved land meant for games and farming.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that the so-called owner of Kilimanjaro is using names like Xiangxiang Wang and Wing Wang as directors of the company.

However, a phone call to the contact number provided in the Registrar General’s Department – which belongs to a woman – said she had no knowledge of a local person using their names to commit the offence.

Residents Association Chairman, Rev. Vincent A. Addo, told DAILY GUIDE that several attempts to ascertain what the developer wanted to put up had yielded no results as everyone close to the project was tightlipped.

The chairman pointed out, “They have resorted to the use of threats to make us allow them to continue with the project. They have been trailing me and only God knows what they want from me because I am not scared of living thing.

“One of our members has been summoned to the Flagstaff House and he was threatened to stay away from the project. Every day, tipper trucks move in and out of the area carting and tipping one raw material or the other, indicative of the fact that the project is going on unabated, even though they still have no permit to start, and yet nobody has done anything to stop them,” Rev. Vincent A. Addo revealed.

Meanwhile, the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) is said to have issued a permit (No. number TMA/PIN/571/COMM.3) to the company to commence the construction of such a huge industrial facility in a residential area.