The Ashaiman District Court has remanded a 34-year-old businessman, Nathaniel Alabi, who allegedly engaged in land guard activities at Santoe, near Ashaiman, in the Greater Accra Region into police custody.
The accused, who will reappear in court on Friday, is facing two counts of discharging guns in town, contrary to Section 209(1)(a) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960(Act 29), and engaging in land guard activities contrary to Act(7)7 of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act 2019(Act 999).
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ernest Dumfia, the Prosecutor, told the court last Friday that on September 22, this year, the Complainant, Stephen Derry, reported to the Ashaiman Divisional CID that on September 19, 2022, Nathaniel Alabi, the accused, wielding a pump action gun and pistol, led some young men to Santoe, near Adjei Kojo, in the West Tema Municipality, to terrorise the residents.
Firing gunshots, ASP Dumfia said Nathaniel told the residents that the land they had developed belonged to him and as a result gave them an option to renegotiate with him or vacate the land.
ASP Dumfia said Nathaniel, on that fateful September 22, 2022 was engaged in a similar gun shooting spree and threat at Katamanso in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality, where the area’s police arrested him with the same two weapons he had used at Santoe on September 19, 2022.
Counsel for the accused, after listening to charges levelled against his client argued that the offence committed by the accused and others are all bailable and that, his client was not a person who would flee from the jurisdiction.
That, there were persons of substance ready to stand surety for the accused, but the court overruled his plea and remanded the accused into custody.
In another development, the Chief Executive Officer of F.A Global Group of Companies, Adu Francis King, is calling on the Ghana Police Service to take a personal interest in investigating a media-reported land guard attack, which the police are said to be aware of at Appolonia, Kubekrom.
The media report headlined: ‘Adu King’s Land Guards on Rampage’ further alleged that the land guards, who are on the payroll of F.A Global Group of Companies attacked the staff of Setho Classic Engineering, a private company, leaving one victim, Philemon Yawo, seriously injured.
“The media reports said the alleged land guards attacked the staff of Setho Classic Engineering on a committal land at Appolonia, Kubekrom at 2.30 pm on September 16, 2022.
“Two things in the media report seriously indict the Ashaiman Divisional Crime Officer and the Tema Regional Police Command, and for me, the police hierarchy needs to take a personal interest in this matter.
“First, a section of the media reported that the Ashaiman Divisional Crime Officer, Superintendent Agbemabiase confirmed the land guards’ attack and said the police were investigating the issue and that the culprits would be prosecuted.
“Second was that the Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Daniel Kwame Afriyie, determined the ownership of the land and declared me as the owner,” Adu Francis King said.
After he had strongly requested the Tema Regional Police Command to investigate the media reports and the picture of the injured in the reports, Adu Francis King said that he had never patronised the services of land guards.
He explained that his company owns a stretch of land he acquired from the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man Family of Kubekrom in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality, but as the land in question always resulted in near clashes between the Odaitse-We Royal Mantse-Man family and the Kpone Traditional Council, Mr King told a cross-section of the media in Ashaiman that the Tema Regional Police Command invited the Lands Commission to pick the land and establish the boundary.
“The Command, then, invited me and one Seth Kwame Sallah, the owner of Setho Classic Engineering, who also owns land in the same area, to present our land acquisition documents, which we did.
“In fact, Setho Classic claimed that part of my land falls within his land which he said he acquired from the Kpone Traditional Council through the Appolonia stool.
“So, last month, the Lands Commission, together with the police and both of us—developers—carried out an exercise to determine the land boundary.
Later last month, the Lands Commission report on the boundary was read to me and Setho Classic in the Tema Regional Commander’s office, indicating that the disputed land doesn’t fall within the Kpone Traditional Council. And that ended it.
“I remember that the Tema Regional Commander had earlier moved in with his uniformed men and asked both factions to stay clear off the land so that his office would investigate and bring finality to the aged dispute. If the police personnel were land guards, I don’t know.
I have not organised land guards to attack the staff of Setho Classic Engineering Company or any developer at Kubekrom. Therefore, the media report that I hired some land guards to go on a rampage is not true,” he explained.
Giving his account, Adu Francis King said: “I need the Ghana Police Service to investigate this criminal matter because the media reported that the Ashaiman Divisional Command is aware of the said attacks by the said land guards on the staff of Setho Classic, the picture of the injured person as carried by the media and lastly, that the Regional Commander determined me as the owner of the land.”
