Kan-Dapaah, Jinapor’s name pop in ‘illegal demolition exercise at East Legon.

Some disgruntled land and property owners at Mempemehuasem at East Legon in Accra are calling on the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah and the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor to speak on their alleged roles in the demolition of their properties ranging thousands of dollars.

According to the affected property owners, one Clement Gyato a known notorious landguard accompanied by some persons in police uniforms on Tuesday April 27, 2021, stormed their lands and demolished several properties.

The activity was said to have taken place without the perpetrators showing any form of warrant or documentation giving them the right to demolish the properties some of whose owners had acquired their lands as far back as 15 years ago.

For such an action with such serious consequence on its victims, the only explanation the affected persons got from the said Gyato and his men was that he has been given the authority by the Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor and National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah to undertake the demolition exercise.

Gyato who was stopped by the East Legon Police on the first day of carrying out the act is said to have showed up the next day to complete that which they had started.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it will interest you to know that, our further checks and inquiries indicate that, Clement Gyato is known on record to be someone who disguises himself as land entrepreneur; he convinces people in power and authority by assuring them of seizing all government lands for them. This has been his stock of trade under past and present regimes. We know for a fact that; he has been going about promising people in government of parcels of land if he is given the chance to seize property he only claims to be government lands. And now here we are, where he is using the names of hardworking government officials of high repute to afflict pain and loss to the good citizens of this country. How do you rob Peter to pay Paul?” the group of affected property owners stated at a press conference on Tuesday.

With a combined cost of GHC2,000,000.00 in buildings, fence walls and other properties totally demolished by Clement Gyato and his surrogates, the Land and Property Owners of East Legon, Mempemehuasem have challenged the Minister of National Security as well as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to come out publicly and admit or deny their involvement in the demolition as attributed to them by the leader of exercise.

They have also called on the Police Service to fully investigate the matter and take proper actions including one on the police officers who joined the demolition of their properties on the 40-acre land which they said they acquired legally and have documents to prove same.

“Consequently, we the land and property owners are therefore calling on the government officials whose names have been mentioned and used to cause atrocities on us, i.e Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor of Lands and Natural Resources Ministry and Hon Kan Dapaah of National Security Ministry to come out publicly to admit or deny the knowledge of these actions and perhaps assist in calling Gyato who is supported by one Aliu Mohammed at the Osu Castle and his team of land guards to order for peace and law to prevail.”

“We again impress on the Ghana Police Service to investigate the intimidation and the abuse meted out to some of our members who were distressed by these barbaric acts and out of natural course attempted to probe further from the persons in police uniforms the authority on which they were carrying out this unacceptable operation for two consecutive days because by law without a court order no one can destroy the property of a fellow Ghanaian. We are of the strong conviction that, any delay or failure to do so, shall leave us with no other options but to prepare to protect our hard-earned property by all means possible,” they added.

Read the statement by the affected owners below:

PRESS STATEMENT BY LAND AND PROPERTY OWNERS OF EAST LEGON MEMPEHUSEM CATCHMENT AREA IN BETWEEN TRINITY THEOLOGY COLLEGE AND IDEAL COLLEGE ON TUESDAY, 27TH APRIL, 2021.

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and Friends from the Media. We the land and property owners of this catchment area invited you all to this site to witness the heinous and illegal destruction of valuable assets and property carried out by one Clement Gyato, a known notorious land guard, accompanied by persons in police uniforms claiming to come from the Greater Accra Regional Police Division and other land guards. Mr Clement Gyato claims he has been given the authority by the Lands Minister, Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor and National Security Minister Hon Kan Dapaah to undertake these illegalities in the form of destruction of people’s property. One may wonder why state officials would want to use the approach of brute force and abuse of powers to engage occupants of portions of lands. This gave us an indication to doubt the perpetrators mandate, because it is an established fact that many of us acquired and occupied this area of lands over 15years ago and surely, if this operation were to be sanctioned by the government, there would have been a court permit and a notice to all occupants as well as further engagement with all stakeholders before execution. Sadly, none of these rightful procedures was followed or met, just for us to wake up to see our property being destroyed with the highest level of impunity by clement Gyato and his accomplices under disguise of the ministers of lands and national security respectively. As a result, it took the intervention of the Police Officers from the East Legon Police Station to stop them on the first day. However, they managed to nicodemusly come back to the site on Tuesday again to continue.

These portions of land were purchased by us following the fulfillment of promise made by His Excellency the Former President JA Kuffour to restore to chiefs and people of Ga, all lands in excess that were given to government of Ghana in the past but have not been put to use for which these embattled parcels of lands are included. For the records, some of us have land titles and many of us also have land registration documents of our lands. The only outstanding issue is the regularization of these lands which we have duly acquired by the lands commission.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it will interest you to know that, our further checks and inquiries indicate that, clement Gyato is known on record to be someone who disguises himself as land entrepreneur; he convinces people in power and authority by assuring them of seizing all government lands for them. This has been his stock of trade under past and present regimes. We know for a fact that, he has been going about promising people in government of parcels of land if he is given the chance to seize property he only claims to be government lands. And now here we are, where he is using the names of hardworking government officials of high repute to afflict pain and loss to the good citizens of this country. How do you rob Peter to pay Paul?

We would hereby want to use this medium to remind Gyato that the last encounter with him and his team on a portion of land around this same area resulted to the death of his two men last two years. And that they must be very careful.

Friends from the media, it is also instructive to note that, the use of names of Hon Abu Jinapor, Hon Kan Dapaah and the Ghana Police Service under the Presidency of His Excellency Nana Addo to destroy buildings, fence walls and other property amounting to over Gh2,000,000 cedis covering over 40 plots(10Acres) is making the government of the day very unpopular because we know that if truly, this action had been commissioned by the Nana Addo led Government, we the citizens and property owners would have been treated with an iota of dignity.

Furthermore, vehicles with registration GV 776-20 (a Covid Response Team branded car), DP 4448(branded police car) and other private cars used by these perpetrators are all suspicious and unconfirmed reports coming from other close friends in the police set up show that the police car registration number is fake.

Ladies and gentlemen, what baffles our mind is that, we hear people saying that, Gyato says he has been given the mandate to reclaim all government lands that are undeveloped, so our question is; how can parcels of land that have structures, buildings, fence walls on them be deemed as undeveloped lands? Clearly one can conclude that there is an ulterior motive behind these demolitions.

Consequently, we the land and property owners are therefore calling on the government officials whose names have been mentioned and used to cause atrocities on us, i.e Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor of Lands and Natural Resources Ministry and Hon Kan Dapaah of National Security Ministry to come out publicly to admit or deny the knowledge of these actions and perhaps assist in calling Gyato who is supported by one Aliu Mohammed at the Osu Castle and his team of land guards to order for peace and law to prevail. We again impress on the Ghana Police Service to investigate the intimidation and the abuse meted out to some of our members who were distressed by these barbaric acts and out of natural course attempted to probe further from the persons in police uniforms the authority on which they were carrying out this unacceptable operation for two consecutive days because by law without a court order no one can destroy the property of a fellow Ghanaian. We are of the strong conviction that, any delay or failure to do so, shall leave us with no other options but to prepare to protect our hard-earned property by all means possible.

In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, friends of the media, we take solace in the president’s recent statement on land issues, that he, President Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo, has never been and shall not be interested in acquiring people’s property. We therefore expect that the powers that be, must emulate the noble gesture of His Excellency the President and desist from any act of seizure of lands and property of people all in the name of Government which further deepens the seemingly creeping mistrust of the state dealing with land matters.

Thank you very much for your attention and May the Good God bless us all.