MEMBERS of the Nii Arde Nkpa Stool Family of Plerno and Kokrobite in Accra are not enthused about recent revelations by one Nene Abbass and some elders of Tuba that the family sold the land earmarked for a school project to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ga South, Mr Joseph Nyarni Stephen, to build his private house at Tuba community.
Consequently, the family cleared the air on the widespread allegation by Nene Abbass and elders that the family had connived with the MCE with the support of Arde Nkpa family of Tuba, Kokrobite, and Langma and some land-guards and police officers to resell government lands to private land developers in the area.
Speaking on Joy News on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 Nene Abbass on behalf of some elders of Tuba accused the Ga South MCE of using land-guards and police officers to attack them on their land which has been earmarked for a school project in Tuba.
He noted that the distraught residents and land owners blamed some police officers at the Weija District Police Command of bias in their handling of the maltreatment meted out to them by the MEC’s hired land-guards in the locality.
But at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Head of Nii Arde Nkpa family, Mr Daniel Nii Arde Tagoe, rubbished the allegation and stated that a private developer who bought the land legally from the Nii Arde Nkpa family sold the said land at Tuba to him.
Mr Tagoe on behalf of the family explained that Mr Joseph Stephen Nyarni Stephen bought the land from the landowners before even he assumed office on Friday, May 5, 2017.
“When the rightful owners of the land resold the land to Mr Nyarni, he came to Nii Arde Nkpa family to regularise his building permit as well as pay his fee to the family after we had won the case over the Tuba land in an Accra High Court presided over by Her Ladyship, Justice Patience Mills Tetteh, on Monday, June 6, 2016,” Mr Tagoe stressed.
He pointed out that the Arde Nkpa family who the allodia owners of Kokrobite, Langma and Tackieman (Tuba) lands in the Ga South Municipality do not need the MCE’s support and land-guards to sell their lands to organisations, institutions and individuals as claimed by Nene Abbass and his associates.
He admitted that the family has donated four plots of land to the Ga South Municipal Assembly for the construction of a Junior High School (JHS) in the communities of Langma and Tackieman (all in Tuba) to help the Assembly kick away the shift system of education which has been the practice over the years in the area.
The family gave the land out to the Assembly headed Mr. Stephen as part of their responsibility and determination to promote quality education in the various communities and also to support government’s agenda of bringing quality teaching and learning to the people.
When contacted by Today to seek his side of the issue, the MCE denied using land-guards to harass and terrorise landowners on the land he was currently building on at Tuba.
He further refuted the allegation of buying stolen lands from illegitimate landowners to build.
“It is not true that land-guards and police officers are helping me to build a mansion…that is why I am silence on fighting land-guards in Ga South Municipality in line with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s decision to flush out criminals and land-guards from the system,” the Ga South MCE stressed.
According to him, Nene Abbass together with some elders approached him when he assumed office on Friday, May 5, 2017 for his assistance to remove encroachers on lands at Tuba earmarked for educational projects.
Story: Freeman KORYEKPOR AWLESU