The youth of Nungua within the Krowor Municipal Assembly are up in arms with the Game and Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission over the manner their buildings are being destroyed in the area.

They are however appealing to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene and call the division to order to avoid any clashes.

According to them, the Game and Wildlife Division has been demolishing their properties and buildings on a parcel of lands which has been a subject of a court injunction at the Tema High Court. But despite the court injunction, the division was still destroying their buildings, a development they are unhappy about.

It was their case that, the government released those lands to the people of Nungua after it realised that it was not in need of those lands.

However, the division is of the view that such lands have been earmarked for wildlife activities and therefore those who have built on them have to forfeit them.

Concerns

Addressing a cross-section of the media on Monday after a brief demonstration in protest against the act on the said land, Nii Okley, the Seiste of Nungua said the government should intervene to ensure that, their properties are not destroyed.

According to him, they do not want to take the law into their own hands and as a result place a court injunction on it, but despite the pending injunction, their properties were being destroyed.

“If you hear us this Monday morning, it is because we have lost and losing our properties and we are making the efforts to save them from being destroyed. We are not children. We have been told that our lands that were acquired by the government some portions have been released and some more are to be released for the township for development,” Mr Okley noted.

He said at Nungua “we practice stool lands, but whatever I say, if our leaders find it offensive, they should forgive me, but I represent them. I’m sure they will not allow us to be sacrificed.”

Wildlife

He recounted that, “all the projects that the government said it was going to develop when it took over our lands, it couldn’t use it for, but started selling some of the lands for the past 30 years.

He explained further that, the Habour Quarters they promised have not been delivered and started selling those lands, but we stood against it. They released some of the lands to us at Communities 12 and 16.

“They also promised to release some later but that didn’t happen. We have realised that the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission said they were taking those lands to rear animals.

“We had Zoo in Accra, but it had since been relocated into the bush and we don’t have any in Accra, so why would you allow wildlife to use those lands when we don’t have sleeping places?” he asked rhetorically.

Appeal to govt

Mr Okley noted that, the land earmarked for the Sakumor Ramsar site has been filled and people are building on it, a development he described as worrying.

“The place where we have the Ramsar site is a waterway but it has been blocked, If they couldn’t do anything with it, they should have released those lands for us, but some ministers and MPs, lawyers, police have allocated those lands to themselves and some of us had buildings there,” he alleged.

“We are pleading with the government to look at it for us because we have heard that it has been allocated to a Chinese developer we don’t know for a fact, it remains a rumour. We took the matter to court and there is an injunction, but ever since, they are still demolishing our buildings.

“The game and wildlife is the one destroying our buildings, because we are in court so we are not fighting them so we are praying with the government to come to our aid and make sure our buildings are safe,” he noted.