Unauthorized sand winning activities by persons believed to be from the palace of the chief of Amrahia in the Kpone Katamanso District of the Greater Accra Region have left property owners and residents with no option than to call for government’s immediate intervention.
Indiscriminate sand winning has destroyed farms of innocent persons while landowners are facing threats of losing their property with demands made on them by the perpetrators to make re-payments.
Buildings have been left hanging as the top soils have been indiscriminately extracted for sale.
Calls to have government intervene have fallen on deaf ears.
Recent presence of the military saw the sand winners running helter-skelter for cover but residents say they returned a few days as the army officers left.
These residents tell 3news.com the extraction of sand started a couple of months ago at the Katamanso side of the area.
But efforts to stop these persons from continuing with their activities proved futile as they claimed they are doing it on behalf of an estate developer – who is said to have close links with some top government officials (This will feature in Part II of the article).
“They told us we will have to reconstruct our building [after the sand winning],” said a resident who spoke on anonymity.
“I asked if they will give me compensation but they said they will even re-sell the land to everybody after they finish winning the sand.”
Persons with property in the area are unhappy with the situation.
Most of them bought their lands from an estate developing firm Adehye, which had the lease from the Amrahia traditional.
The situation has created tension as land owners – most of whom are Ghanaians staying abroad – are planning a legal suit over devastation.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana