Call GNPC, DCE To Order Now!: Jomoro citizens urge president

Citizens of four communities in the Jomoro District of the Western Region have
urged President John Atta Mills to call to order the Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation (GNPC) and the District Chief Executive of Jomoro, Victor Nyianyi
Kabenla, before things get out of hand in the district.
The four communities: Bonyere , Kabla-Suazo, Dum-Suazo and Egbazo have called on
President Mills to direct GNPC to halt any process they had initiated in their
quest to acquire the over 400 Square Kilometre stretch of land from Bonyere to
Egbazo and rather start negotiations with affected land and farm owners.
They however warned the GNPC to suspend any further action concerning any land
in the area, until the Bonyere Chieftaincy issue before the courts is settled to
avoid worsening an already insecurity situation.
Making the call in an interview with The Lead newspaper in Bonyere on Sunday, an
opinion leader of the community, James Ackah Moore expressed concern about the
growing tension in the community as a result of the indiscretion on the part of
GNPC in trying to annex plots of land belonging to the people.

“Currently, there is a chieftaincy dispute in the town with a court injunction
forbidding anybody holding himself out as chief of the place until the court
reaches a verdict on who becomes the traditional leader. It is therefore
unfortunate that a government institution of the stature of GNPC should be
putting up actions that could be in contempt of court”.

Tension has been mounting in the four communities over the forced land
acquisition by GNPC sparking fear of a possible unrest in the virgin Jubilee Oil
fields of Ghana.

The Lead was reliably informed that four communities had been seething with rage
over the decision by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to take
over a piece of land measuring over 400 kilometre square in their community
without the due process of acquisition.
The GNPC is not only trying to acquire the land by force but has actually
started cutting down coconut trees (which is a cash crop) on the land without
the authority of the land owners and the farmers.
However, on Thursday, the DCE for the area, Hon. Nyianyi Kabenla instead of
trying to calm nerves rather went to Bonyere, one of the communities affected by
GNPC’s land grabbing, and to the chagrin of the people, allegedly declared that
the land belongs to government and so the coconut trees would surely go down for
government to do whatever it wanted on it.

He was said to have returned to Bonyere on Sunday in the company of the District
Police Commander, the District Officer of the Bureau of National Investigations
(BNI), and Francis Romanus Awokah Arloo, an official of National Commission for
Civic Education (NCCE) who also goes by the title Nana Nyamekeh Annor III
against the orders of the National House of Chiefs and the courts to intimidate
the people.

They also accused the DCE of intimidating the people with the police and BNI
officials in the district.

While the people are brooding over their losses and contemplating about their
next move, the GNPC has rather contracted Stratcom Africa, a private public
relations company to feed the communities with well-rehearsed public relations
products telling them how the project was going to benefit them.
The people however made it abundantly clear to the communications company that
they were not against the location of the projects in the community, but “we are
worried about the manner in which our lands are being taken over without our
consent.”
They however believe that GNPC’s actions are rather exacerbating the already
fragile chieftaincy problem in the communities.
They therefore want the president to call the DCE, Nyianyi Kabenla and GNPC to
order to stop intimidating the people.
When this paper called the DCE, he admitted visiting Bonyere on Thursday and
Sunday, but declined to make any further comments.

However, an official of Stratcom Africa told this paper that GNPC had not
acquired the land yet but was in the process of identifying the size of land
they wanted from the place.

He said the land was needed for a gas processing plant to feed Aboadze Thermal
plant and the Efaso Batch with gas.

He said a petrol-chemical plant would also be located on the same piece of land
to augment current energy capacity of the country.
The official also confirmed that the DCE’s utterances on Thursday were said to
have inflamed passions in the community.