Pokrom Nsabaa: Farms destroyed with chemical over land dispute

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

Correction: A portion of this article that states that Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie is alleged to be a substantive staff member of an insurance company in Accra has been edited to reflect the fact that she is not an employee of the company.

Over eight acres of pineapple farm and several acres of cassava and cocoyam farms at Pokrom in the Akuapem South District of Eastern Region have been destroyed with a chemical known as “gramazone” by unknown persons.

This heinous event happened soon after farmers at Pokrom engaged in a tussle over the vast land with one Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie who owns a real estate company named Revealed Truth Properties Limited.

The farmers who were seen wailing and counting their losses over the incident pointed accusing fingers at Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie.

Speaking to the media, the aggrieved farmers appealed to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Otubour Gyan Kwasi, the Aburi Chief, and the Municipal Chief Executive for Akuapem South, Frank Aidoo, to come to their aid, saying the estate developer was using foul means to usurp their land.

“This is Pokrom Nsabaa. Our problem is that some of us have been working on the land for over 20 years. Others are family land and because we have worked on it for long, the family sold it to us. As I speak I have a land here with title deeds to the land.

“Recently we were here and suddenly saw a signpost had been mounted on the land with the inscription that whoever has their property on the land should take it off because it has been bought by them and that they had given us a week to vacate the land.

“They put a phone number on the signpost for us to call. We called the number severally but there was no answer. Finally, when they answered, they only said we should vacate the land because the land has been sold to them.

“One day they came with an excavator to clear most of our pineapple crops. What we farm here most is pineapple. They cleared everything and when we tried resisting it became nasty.

“They left and came later with land guards this time. Over 25 land guards have been here on our farms for over two weeks. As a result we the farmers could not come onto our farms. Finally, we sent the matter to court and the court set a date for the verdict.

“The verdict is not yet given, but we woke up one day and realised they had placed a grader on the land to clear our crops from the land. As I speak over four acres cassava farm has been destroyed by these people and left the unripe food underground.

“Just last two weeks our pineapple farm with over 50,000 plants, they have sprayed gramazon chemical on all and killed them. We could not even pick any,” one of the farmers narrated.

He added that “In fact, we are frustrated and we don’t seem to have anyone to speak for us. A certain Madam called Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie. She said she is the estate developer with Revealed Truth at Kutunse. She is the prime leader of the act.

"They are making us frustrated and we need urgent help. We call on President Nana Akufo-Addo, our chief Nana Gyan Kwasi, MCE and our MP, O.B Amoah to come to our aid.”

Another farmer, a female, told the media that the farmland belonging to her family had been usurped by the estate developers.

“I am from Pokrom. My husband and I have a pineapple farm with plans to make money to help our children. All my three children are disabled and left in the room. One of them had an accident and has been disabled. One had an operation and is bedridden. The third just came out from prison four months ago. When we asked him he said he would go to school.

“We have banked our hopes on the pineapple farm to get money for him. We went for a loan to treat our accident victim. Same with the one with the operation. Now we have to pay it back. Our hope is our farm.

“Suddenly, we went to the farm to work on our crops only to see that all the pineapples had been destroyed. While we were wailing, we heard a certain Bridgette has bought the land. What Bridgette. All I know is that we are litigating on the land with a certain Pentecost pastor. The court stopped activities on the land till the verdict is given.

“Now land guards have taken over the land and even children in this area cannot pass by to school at Eno Kwaakyewa. So, we plead Akufo-Addo, O.B. Amoah to come to our aide,” she said.

A farmer called Lawal said he bought his two and a half land in 2013 and has documentation on it except he was yet to properly register it but the estate developers from nowhere have come claiming ownership of the land and have destroyed all his farm crops.

Vida Awuku is a farm labourer. According to her, she got to the farm one early morning at 4:30 am only to see land guards on it claiming they have bought that land.

“So I went home to see my master who said same and assured me to wait while the problem is being solved. when I came again, they had cleared everything on the land. We don’t even know what to do now.

"Schools have reopened and we need to work to make money to pay our wards fees. People will accuse us, rural dwellers, of not sending our children to school but it is not our fault. Authorities should come to our aid to claim our lands back to us,” she appealed.

When Ghanaweb contacted the said Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie, she denied being behind the destruction of the farms even though she claimed emphatically that, “The land is ours (and) we need to work.”

Bridgette Opoku-Sarkodie said she called all the farm owners through a radio announcement to come for their compensations but only two of them showed up to write their names and that “and we need to do our project.”

“We have not destroyed any pineapple farm anywhere. The land is ours. we need to work. we have been working to get farmers to come for their compensation for over eight months now. For one reason or the other, they have refused their compensation. They said they don’t want to sit with us and talk.

“The land in question is registered and titled in our name. The company's name (Revealed Truth Properties Ltd); and we need to do our project. Everything you see on the land was planted during the course of negotiation with the farmers to come for compensation. They have refused.

“We have gone to their local radio station in the town to make an announcement and some came and wrote their names. We took videos of the place so that we let an agronomist to come and look at it and we pay them off, they have refused, and so we are working on the side that has no crops for now so that we can do our project. We are a business entity. The longer we wait the more it hits our business,” she told Ghanaweb.