Police assist landguards at Amasaman

The Amasaman District Police Command has been accused of assisting landguards to cause mayhem in the Ga West District of the Greater Accra Region.

According to officials of Positive Drive Investment, a real estate company, the command is responsible for the many injuries and deaths that had occurred over land disputes in the area.

It would be recalled that Sulley Amartey, a worker of Sally Properties, was shot to death while five others sustained gunshot wounds in December 2013 over parcels of land at Ayikai Doblo.

“Even though the Amasaman police claimed to have intensified the search for the perpetrators of the heinous crime, no one has been prosecuted over the death up till now,” an official of Positive Drive Investment alleged.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that landguards last Saturday again attacked workers of the company who had gone on the Ayikai Doblo lands to serve notices to encroachers.

“When we got there, we met Nii Foster, the Chief of Nsakina – who had apparently sold our lands to the encroachers – with many landguards. The chief unleashed his goons on us, subjecting us to severe beatings, and even stripped our surveyor naked,” he claimed.

He said he and other officials of Positive Drive Investment had to run for their lives, leaving behind their grantor, Samir Masri aka Sousuo, who was beaten to pulp, while the GPS machine of the surveyor was confiscated by the marauding land guards.

When the matter was reported to the Amasaman police, the District Crime Officer, Sebastian Abigiah, rather treated the complainants like criminals, the official alleged.

“At the Amasaman Police Station, and in the presence of the District crime officer, Nii Adjei Foster threatened us, and said there would be more deaths in the area. The crime officer virtually begged him to return the GPS machine. It was clear they were working together,” the official noted.

He added that Positive Drive Investment had spoken to their lawyers who were preparing to petition the Inspector General of Police over the conduct of the Amasaman District police.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted the district crime officer, he admitted last Saturday’s assault but denied the accusation leveled against him.

“Yes, it is true there were assaults over the weekend because the land in question is a litigated one. I told the surveyor to pick a form and go to the hospital so that we take the matter up,” he added.

Responding to the complainant’s decision to petition the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over his conduct, the crime officer said, “Okay, I am here. As far as I am concerned, I have done no wrong to incur the IGP’s displeasure. Investigations are ongoing to ensure sanity.”

On the allegation that a lot of guns were found in the Nsakina chief’s palace when the police went there to retrieve the surveyor’s GPS machine, the police officer said he knew nothing about that.