Police arrest 23 Land Guards

Accra, Oct. 7, GNA - A combined team from the Panthers and Striking Force Units of the Ghana Police Service on Thursday arrested 23 land guards at Adjei Kojo, a village near Tema, following their persistent harassment of workers of the Social Insurance and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), who are developing the land.

Superintendent John Kobla Agboado, Head of Highway Patrol Unit of the Police, told the Ghana News Agency that the Government acquired the land for the Tema Development Corporation.

TDC later sold the land to SSNIT, who in turn are working with some Malaysians to develop the land but the activities of the land guards had prevented them from doing so.

Superintendent Agboado said after the developers had cleared the land the Chief of Adjei Kojo, Nii Otu Kweijan and a woman called Ms Grace Djokoto with some elders of the village claimed that the land belonged to them and hired two groups of land guards from various places in Accra and Ashaiman to guard the land.

He said when the Police approached the site the land guards tried to attack them with machetes, knives and sticks but the superior numbers and arms of the Police prevailed and they were disarmed and arrested. Superintendent Agboado said Nii Kweijan, Ms. Djokoto and some of the elders who recruited the thugs, were at large.

He said Razak Mohammed, 25, was the leader of the Nima Group while Ali Mohammed, 27, led the Ashaiman Group.

Among those arrested were Abu Abukari, 25, from Nima; Maxwell Cobbina, 22, from Dansoman; Yakubu Kassim, 28, from Ashaiman and Sebastian Hodor, 20, from Nima.