Last month, the Today Newspaper reported that some “big men” were attempting to forcibly take over land that belongs to a Groupe Nduom company.
The land in question is near the Trust Towers at Adabraka in Accra.
The paper also reported the illegal use of state security personnel to terrorise the land owners.
According to the paper, their earlier investigations showed that one minister of state in the Akufo-Addo administration was seen at the site a few weeks ago.
However, our further investigations have revealed that the Deputy Chief of Staff, Emmanuel Adumua Bossman, is the one attempting to forcibly take over the said land belonging to GN Reinsurance.
According to sources close to the company, Mr Bossman has been using agencies of the state to force his way onto the land injuring the security personnel engaged by GN Reinsurance in the process.
One of the GN Reinsurance’s security personnel guarding the land was alleged to have suffered a gunshot wound when he attempted to resist some national security operatives who were on the land at the orders of Mr Bossman.
The paper’s checks last week Wednesday at the site pointed to the fact that Mr Bossman had started illegal construction work without permit on the land.
When Today contacted Mr Bossman last week Thursday in his office at the Jubilee House, he denied using national security personnel to take over the land.
He, however, confirmed his involvement in the tussle over the land, claiming that the land near the Trust Towers belongs to his great grandfather, Joseph Adumua Bossman.
According to him, as one of the trustees of his great grandfather’s properties which include the land, he could not have sat down quietly and allowed some people to take what rightfully belongs to his family.
He said, he got a hint that some encroachers had destroyed a structure on the land and were also fencing it, a situation, he said, led to his action of reporting the matter to the Property Fraud Office at the Police Headquarters in Accra.
“The only thing I did after reporting the case to the police, was to put a gate on the land to prevent the encroachers,” he said.
He added: “I never sent national security personnel to harass anybody, maybe because my cousin (Theodore), alias Kwesi Semis who works with the national security chased the encroachers out that’s why they are saying I used state power to take the land.”
Meanwhile checks at the Property Fraud Office at the Police Headquarters show that the rightful owners of the land (GN Reinsurance) and the Deputy Chief of Staff have petitioned the police over the land.
According to the police officer in charge of the case who pleaded to speak to Today Newspaper on condition of anonymity, he had forwarded the petitions to his boss and “hopefully this week we will invite the parties involved to come and write their statements and then we will take it from there”.
But several questions arise: How did the deputy Chief of Staff manage to fix a gate to a wall constructed by GN Reinsurance to protect their land? Who has given Mr Bossman and his accomplices the permit to start building on the land? Is the police administration an arbiter of land rights? How did they show up on the land to disperse GN Reinsurance security personnel? Does the National Security Minister know that personnel he commands have been used to terrorize ordinary citizens protecting land they have title to? Why have the police not charged the persons who have been carrying guns on that land in Accra in daylight. What has happened to the person who discharged the firearm to injure a security guard? The Akufo-Addo Administration rode to office on a law and order platform. Does that not apply to the deputy chief of staff Bossman?
There is more to this story. Next readers will be informed on the legal angle and what has played out in court.
In addition, a story of another valuable and huge land parcel that has been taken over with the “protection” of a minister of state is being worked on.
