Soldiers run riot; brutalise workers, landowners at Labone

Information reaching Weekend Today indicates that a group of soldiers last Tuesday allegedly beat and tortured some innocent workers who were working on a parcel of land belonging to the Abafum Family of the La Traditional Area in Accra.

The parcel of land, which is near the South African Embassy at Labone in Accra, was reportedly invaded by the purported military personnel who allegedly went berserk after arriving at the said parcel of land and assaulted the workers on site.

According to our sources, the supposed military men, numbering about four and in military outfits, claimed they were acting under the express instruction of two National Security operatives (names withheld), stationed at the Osu Castle in Accra.

One of the Abafum family members, Nii Okpoti, who was on site on the day of the attack, said he and other family members on the said day were brutally assaulted.

He disclosed that some of the workers sustained various degrees of injury during the incident. He claimed that the soldiers made away with his whopping GHC23,200, and a water-pumping machine which was being used by the workers.

And following the incident, Weekend Today learnt that the Abafum family lodged a complaint at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service.

Narrating the story to Today in an interview in Accra yesterday, a member of the Abafum family at La, Nii Otu Kodia, stated that they were embittered by the action of the soldiers, which he believes was in contravention of their core duties as enforcers of the law.

He stated categorically that the 100×120 acre land situated at Labone belonged to them and not the government as claimed by the two national security operatives, who allegedly led the soldiers to the site.

According to him, the Property Fraud Unit of the Ghana Police Service sometime ago invited both parties and revealed they had no issues with the two Osu Castle security personnel to warrant such attacks.

“If the court has placed an injunction on the land, we will obey court orders. Nothing of that sort has happened and so they both have no right to come here with military men to beat our workers claiming they are working for a senior minister,” he stressed.

Nii Kodia cautioned that there was no way they will give up their property to anyone and averred that the family will not be intimidated by anybody in their bid to protect the property.

He asserted that “we the people of La Community cannot work anymore because they are being attacked and beaten mercilessly by the military men.”

To this end, Nii Kodia appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene in the matter.

“We are sending a wake-up call to the President because some people are using his office for illegal practices and they claim they are from the Office of the President. We know of only one Senior Minister and so if they [the Osu Castle National Security operatives] claim they are acting on the instructions of a Senior Minister, then we need the President and the Chief of Defence Staff to intervene.”

According to him, some people are using the office of the president to cow “us into submission. We want peace in this community. I doubt if they can do the same thing in the Ashanti Region because the people will not allow such in their community.”