Ashaiman youth fight private developer

Some angry youth of Ashaiman have vowed to lose their lives rather than allow a private developer, Murphy Homes to take over a parcel of land in Ashaiman for its commercial residential purposes.

According to the youth, they are prepared to do everything possible to ensure that the private developer does not possess the land in question which is alleged to have been dubiously handed over to the Ghana Free Zones Board by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC).

Speaking to the issue in Ashaiman after the group sacked some workers of Murphy Homes from the land which is referred to as Community 21, YahayaTahiru a leader of the aggrieved youth hinted that colleagues were prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that the land was released to the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and the Ashaiman Divisional Council for the area’s development instead.

According to him, it is unfortunate for some persons in the Mahama led-government who occupied very influential positions with the Ghana Free Zones Board to shamefully sell the land to a private developer when Ashaiman lacked lands for its development.

What according to Tahiru was worrying was the haste in which the transfer of the ownership of the land was concluded.

“Some document we sighted indicated that the whole thing was started and ended just before the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections were held. What I have asked is why did the Ghana Free Zones Board not wait for the transitional period to end before tying up the deal for Murphy Homes to become the new owners of the land?” Tahiru quizzed.

Explaining what he said is the background to the whole issue surrounding the area, Tahiru noted that the area was initially occupied by his parents and other farmers who used the land in question for farming activities. He continued that some years later his parents and the other farmers were asked to vacate the land as TDC wanted to rezone that area.

“In fact around that time one of my parents’ owner of Afariwa Farm who was also farming there managed to get some permit from TDC and used his allocation for a real estate but the rest were forced out of the area despite pleas by them to have the area regularized for them for residential purposes since the area was going to be turned into that”.

The situation, according Tahiru, has rendered most of the farmers jobless and homeless currently with some of them said to be perching with other relations with no source of livelihood.

“We have had some insiders from TDC explain to us that at a board meeting some time ago it was discussed that even if the place was to be released to the Ghana Free Zone Board some form of compensation should be paid to the farmers who had farmed there for several years; something that never happened” Tahiru explained.

He continued that somehow they later heard again from some insiders from TDC that some powerful person in the previous government gave orders that the land be released to the Ghana Free Zone Board under bizarre circumstances.

What, according to Tahiru, has angered the youth is that shortly after the 2016 general elections, they noticed some graders working on the land and upon enquiry they were informed that the land had been sold to the owner of Murphy Homes, a real estate company. He said they have sacked workers of the real estate company from the land and have warned them not to come back.

“We all know the story on how they dubiously claim to have purchased the land from Ghana Free Zones Board. We dare them to come back to the land and they will see what will happen there. Our members have expressed preparedness to lose their lives in ensuring that the land is handed to the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and the Divisional Council” Tahiru remarked and added that the area does not have land to build a proper police station, a hospital, a law court, and another bus terminal to augment the already overcrowded one the area has as well as other amenities.

The ‘one district- one factory’ the President promised might not come to fruition if the land is not handed over the people of Ashaiman because they will not get land for such factory and added that the only available land for such project is the Community 21 they have vowed not to release to Murphy Homes.

“We want Mr. Kwadwo Twum Boafo, the former Executive Secretary to the Ghana Free Zones Board to come out and tell Ghanaians what wrong the people of Ashaiman have done to him and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) hence the reason to sell the Community 21 to a private developer. We equally want him to come out and give us the details of what went into the sale of the place to a man who is alleged to have created similar problems in other parts of the country,” Tahiru angrily stated.

In a related development, Nii Adzor, the regent of Ashaiman and a former Member of Parliament in the area, Franklin Winfred Aheto have all denied taking an amount of GH¢400,000 from the private developer. According to them, it was not true that they have been compromised in the matter but rather they have explained to the youth to remain calm while they held talks with the relevant people in ensuring that the place was released to the people of Ashaiman.

At the time of filing this story the traditional leaders of the area and some management members of Murphy Homes were locked up in a crunch meeting in the office of the Ashaiman Divisional Commander over the troubled land.

Tahiru, however, appealed to the Tema Mantse not to give in to the demands of the management of Murphy Homes who are said to have rushed to the palace of the Tema Chief to ensure that the youth were spoken to.