Asotwe youth cause mayhem over land

Asotwe (Ash), March 22, GNA - Three persons, including a policeman, were wounded when a demonstration by the youth of Asotwe in the Ejisu-Juaben District to claim back a 150-acre parcel of land allegedly taken over by the Juaben Traditional council turned violent on Monday. The attacked labourers who were working on the land that is part of a palm plantation belonging to the Juaben Traditional Council and destroyed about 500 acres of palm trees.

The youth, armed with cutlasses, pistols and stones, forced their way into the palace of Nana Wireko Ade II, chief of Asotwe, and threatened to lynch him for his inability to claim back the land from Nana Otuo Serebour, the Paramount chief of the Juaben Traditional Area. Police reinforcement from Kumasi arrested 40 people and they are helping the police in their investigations.

Mr Simon Yaw Afiaku, the Konongo Divisional Police Commander who briefed the GNA, said the youth blocked both Asotwe-Ejisu and Juaben-Asotwe roads.

He said a policeman has lost one while two of the youth sustained severe gunshot wounds as a result of firing by the youth group. Nana Wireko Ade said negotiations on the issue had started and that the youth had presented a petition to Nana Aboagye Agyei, the Paramount Chief of Ejisu.

The people of Asotwe claim their ancestors handed down the 150-acre land to them but it had been taken from them.