SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
03
Soldiers invade Otinibi
BY PHILIP ANTOH
y.antoh@yahoo.com
RESIDENTS OF Otinibi
Hills Community in the La
Nkwantang Madina
Municipality in the Greater
Accra Region are calling on
the President and the Defence Minister
to immediately call on the military high
command to order armed soldiers seen
to be protecting lands at Otinibi to leave
the place for their barracks.
According to the residents and
particularly the land owners among
them, in their quest to develop lands
they bought legally from Otinibi people
as far back as 2009, they daily suffer
threats, harassment and sometimes
beatings from the armed soldiers who
are said to be protecting a parcel of
land they claim belongs to one Mr
Daniel Kojo Gyampa Markins.
“We are begging the military high
command to immediately speak to their
men to withdraw from the area because
there is no war going on at Otinibi.
When did the military start policing
lands for an individual?” they asked.
Speaking at a packed press
conference organised by land owners in
the area, the spokesperson for the
residents, Mr Akwasi Adarkwa, said the
total number of residents at the Otinibi
Hills community were in excess of 200
with about 60 of them being property
owners.
Mr Adarkwa said the soldiers,
wielding guns, protect masons and
other construction workers who are
constructing a fence wall round the land
that already has properties on it, with
the owner having the intention of
pulling down everything on the land.
He said residents acquired pieces of
land from the lawful representatives of
Adjei Kweidza Mansah and Okantsuru
Dzan families as far back as 2009.
“We conducted searches at the
Lands Commission at various times and
the search proved that the lands were in
the name of the two families,
Okantsuru and Adjei Kweidza.”
“Based on documents shown to
members of the community, we have
every reason to believe that the families
referred to above are lawful custodians
of the lands and have the right to assign
us leases on the said land,” he said.
• Bulldozing properties, while
owners look on helplessly
• Mr Akwasi Adarkwa, spokeperson of the Otinibi Hills Community
He said the landowners had developed
their lands to various levels such as some
having completed their buildings and
occupying them with well-developed road
network and electricity extension.
Social Amenities
Mr Adarkwa said all these social amenities
were constructed with the support of the
poverty owners and landlords in the area
dating back to 2015.
“We woke up one morning in May 2015,
some people purporting to work for Mr
Markins appeared in the community and
started writing on buildings and structures
under construction in the community;
asking that they be
removed by the orders
of Markins.”
He said upon
enquiries, members of
the community were
told that Daniel
Markins had acquired
the lands from the
chiefs and elders of
Adomobrobe in the
Eastern Regions and
that he was going to
use the land to
construct houses to
build a community to
be called Markins Hills.
Mr Adarkwa said
since then there have
been many instances of disturbances and
threats by ‘land guards’, with some of them
attacking members of the community,
landowners and people working for the
landowners whenever they attempted to
develop their lawfully acquired lands.
He said some of the land guards went to
the extent of pulling down some structures.
“When arrested to Oyibi Police Station,
some of them made it clear that they were
working on the instructions of Mr Markins,”
Mr Adarkwa said.
No demolishing order
He said so far neither Markins nor his
assigns nor agents had produced any
demolition order by any court against any of
the properties in the community; including
those marked ‘Remove. By Markins,’ and
there is no known court process against the
occupants of the lands being claimed by
Markins.
He said on August 24, 2019, some
community members confronted some
workers accompanied by some of the known
land guards grading a large tract of land in
the community and “the workers and the
land guards told us they were working for Mr
Markins.”
“On August 29, 2019, we woke up to the
sight of armed military officers on a military
truck with registration number GA37.
Initially they refused to engage anyone as to
their presence until we reported their
presence to the Oyibi Police and Adenta
Police stations. A police patrol team came in
and told us the soldiers were there to work
for Mr Markins.
Armed Military
He said using the armed military
personnel, Mr Markins had proceeded to
commence the erection of a wall to envelope
the properties occupied by households,
including women and children, and also cut
them off from roads and footpaths.
“This is a clear attempt to forcibly take
over our properties aided and abetted by the
Ghana Armed Forces.
“We are therefore contesting the
aggressive claim of the lands in the
community which are already occupied since
2009 and the use of the armed military
personnel is just a desperate attempt by Mr
Markins and his agents to illegally drive us
away from the land acquired through our
hard work,” he stated.
“We the members of Otinibi Hills
Community are calling on the military high
command to immediately
call their men to order
because our understanding
of the function of the
military in the Republic is
to protect the state against
external aggression. We are
neither aliens nor
aggressors and it is difficult
to understand why armed
military personnel would
be employed by an
individual to intimidate
law-abiding citizens in
dispute over lands.”
All attempts to speak
with Mr Markins proved
futile as call to his cell
phone number went
unanswered.
• Soldiers wielding
guns at Otinibi