Fumesua Kontihene denies land sale claim

Lands earmarked for a market and cemetery at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region have not been sold to a private person as is being rumoured, Nana Obeng Duah, Kontihene of Fumesua, has told Accra100.5FM.

The chief’s comments come on the back of the discovery of a coffin at the entrance to the palace of the chief of the town at dawn on Sunday July 17.

A group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Fumesua, believed to have carried out the act, in a letter buried in the coffin along with two bottles of schnapps and other material, accused the chief of the area, Nana Esua Amoako, of giving out the lands without consulting the people.

The group also expressed reservations with the private developer, whom the leaders accused of exhuming the remains of the bodies buried on the property, and depositing them at an unknown place without resort to traditional customs. The group said the chief’s failure to perform appropriate rituals on the property before giving it out for exhumation was the cause of some recent mysterious deaths in the area.

But reacting to the issue on the station’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Monday July 18, Nana Duah refuted talk of the sale of any land to an individual.

“It is not true. There is no private developer anywhere. No one has come for vast land to carry out development. They (lands sold) are individual blocks. There is no developer. It is not true,” he explained.

According to him, it would be better for the unknown persons behind the ‘coffin petition’ to come forward to be shown a layout of community lands on paper to cure the speculation that the chiefs were selling plots designated for communal projects and lining their pockets. He disclosed that the erection of a structure near the land in question should not lead to the conclusion that land intended for the market had been given out.

The Kontihene reminded persons wanting information on any development in Fumesua to come to the palace, as it was always open to receiving and addressing complaints. He warned those bent on creating confusion to be wary of the repercussions on the community.