Some youth and traditional leaders of Nungua in the Greater Accra Region are accusing Prof Amoako-Tuffuor of the Office of the Vice-President, of using his position to annex their lands illegally.

Speaking at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, December 11, 2020, the spokesperson for the angry youth, Mr. James Bortequaye, called on President Akufo-Addo to call Prof Amoako-Tuffuor to order.

He said: “We are organising this press conference concerning Dr. Amoako-Tuffuor, who claims to be a professor and a lecturer working at the Vice-President’s office.

“He’s using the Office of the Vice-President to take our land at Sakumono and he claims he has documents signed by the Nungua Mantse and the Gyaasekye of Nungua and we are saying that the document he has is fake.

“We are urging the president to call Dr. Amoako-Tuffour to order and we are urging the IGP to call the Sakumono police station officer, who claims to be an uncle to Amoako-Tuffour from Oyoko clan, to order.

“We don’t want any problem, we want our land back…this is not about politics, we are talking from our heart, we don’t want this embarrassment at this time of our elections”, the youth said.

The youth laced their appeal to the president with a threat.

“We are calling on the president, we can change our minds, we can do a lot of things”, warning: “If he [President] doesn’t call him [Dr. Amoako-Tuffour] to order, what is going to happen will be felt by the length and breadth of the whole country.”

Amoako-Tuffuor’s response

Responding to the allegation, Prof Amoako-Tuffuor told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FM’s 505 news programme on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 11 November 2020 that it was false.

He said: “This is false; how can I take over Nungua lands”.

“How can I just walk there and take over lands? Explain to me how that can happen; with armed guards? Does that happen in Ghana? I don’t know…” he said.

He continued: “You should ask the Nungua youth how can somebody come from the village somewhere and take over Nungua lands? This is an indictment on their own chiefs, not on me. It is an indictment of lawlessness if somebody can walk to Nungua and take over Nungua lands and get permission from the chiefs to construct a wall”.

“A land bought in 2013/14 under the NDC regime and I built a wall and you come and tell me I’ve taken over Nungua land? Wasn’t it sold? Didn’t they collect money? The chiefs didn’t know what they were doing?

“From the Nungua Mantse and with all respect to the Gyaasekye, to the late Wolomei, didn’t they know what they were doing?” he asked.

“So, I will rather they would have gone to the Nungua Mantse, Gyaasekye and ask: ‘Why did you let somebody come and take over our land?’ And, so, the word takeover is wrong, the land was sold by them and it was purchased by me with all documents.”

GaDanagme agitation over other lands

This comes just a day after some GaDangme youth and traditional leaders expressed anger at President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government over what they described as the worst land-grabbing incident by any government in Ghana’s history.

They accused the President of not sticking to his promise of protecting lands belonging to the GaDangme people but rather watching idly as his appointees privatise lands in the Ga traditional area.

The President, in an interaction with the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs last month, noted that he has directed the Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs to begin consultations with the House of Chiefs, as part of moves to deal with issues of compulsory acquisition of land by the government.

But the youth of GaDangme said this is “adding salt to their injury”, as, according to them, it adds up to the numerous unfulfilled promises made to them by the president.

They warned that they might be forced to protect their lands on their own if the President does not return lands illegally annexed by government officials, to them.

The group’s convener, Mr. Jeffrey Addo Kwei Tetteh, addressing the press in Accra on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, said: “He whose kernel was broken by the benevolent spirit must learn not to boast”.

“We would have had this media interaction on 27 October 2020 but for the timely request and persuasion by the NPP National Chairman, Mr. Freddy Blay, who requested a 48-hour window of intervention, which was closely followed by a plea from Honourable Adjiri Blankson on the same subject.

“Although we knew their intention of buying time to work out a strategy, we still gave them the audience out of respect for the elderly.

“It was, therefore, not surprising to us when President Nana Akufo-Addo, in adding insult to our injuries, indicated his readiness to institute a commission to start looking into GaDangme land matters next year January, as if the term of the presidency extends beyond the stipulated four years in the Constitution and, again, as if the president already knows the outcome of the forthcoming election.

“Do you already know what tomorrow brings, in terms of political power, Mr. President?

“Your greatest silence in these inimical activities can best be described as connivance, if not indicating of your complicity; otherwise, why should these appointees, i.e. Dominic Nitiwul, Asomah Cheremeh, Maxwell Nsafoah, Alhaji Sulley and Stephen Ntim, among others still be in the office under the rule of law.

“The La State has been bleeding for the past 60 years and still counting, with the members of the La traditional council being gagged to suit the whims and caprices of the government as always, and if care is not taken, whatever scenario that took place at Denkyira Obuasi and elsewhere might be replicated in the worst form in La in the foreseeable future if and only if these demands are not addressed within reasonable and redeemable time”, the youth threatened.

For his part, the co-convener, Nii Amoah Okromansa I, said: “We’re in a constitutional era, we’re in a democratic era where the rule of law is supreme, the rule of law does not expect you to go violent ways.

“We’ve sat with the government officials, both past and present, asking for what is due us; what is given to the Akyem Kingdom, what is given to the Asante Kingdom, what is given to the Gonja land people, Dagomba people, the Voltarians, we are asking same in Greater Accra.

“As long as it will take us, even 200 years, we will continue to fight until the rights of the GaDangme people have been returned to them. If Nana Akufo-Addo doesn’t listen to us, then what happened in 1652 will happen again.”