Family including 3-year-old attacked by land guards over digging fee

The intimidation of residents by land guards has resulted in an attack on three family members in Mangoline, a community in the Ga South municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

According to reports, the land guards attacked the 3-year-old son of their victims with a knife over their refusal to pay a digging fee they demanded.

The attack has left the family traumatized, with their son receiving treatment for his injuries. The victims have subsequently abandoned their building development following the attack.

Police have since arrested two suspects, with one still at large.

Some residents who have been victimized by the operations of land guards expressed their frustrations over the exploitation, noting that some of these armed land guards are even charging for roofing and tiling fees.

One resident expressing their fear over the menace said, “Someone whose whole family, aside from the threats they laid, were cut with knives and cutlasses, including a baby. Their reason was that they are taking a digging fee and this was a house that was already set up. Now they are even taking tiling and roofing fees, it’s ridiculous.”

Another victim of a land guard attack also said, “We shouldn’t be tolerating these kinds of things. Land guards harassing people, being violent, it's not done. We should all frown upon and move against it. It shouldn’t be a thing. Have you seen any land guard in the US? We claim we want to be a developed country and we are allowing this barbaric stuff to go on, it's appalling.

“You gather a small amount of money; you want to develop a piece of land and now you have to go through daily bouts with individuals who claim they are whatever they call themselves. They come around, harass your workers, and this has been a bad culture, such that even the workers are refusing to work for you if they should have an encounter with these kinds of people,” he lamented.

MAG/MA