Accra Oct. 2, GNA - The Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC) on Thursday warned all land guards parading in the Region to halt their activities or be prepared to face the full rigours of the law. "All those parading and serving as land guards are advised in their own interest to immediately refrain from such activities or be prepared to face the full rigours of the law."

Sheikh Ibrahim Cudjoe Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, gave the warning after an emergency meeting with members of REGSEC in Accra on the upsurge of the activities of land guards in the Region. Media reports had it that the land guard concept involved the recruitment of persons with violent disposition by chiefs, families, landowners and disputants to protect their lands against encroachment. In carrying out their mission, they normally brutalise, assault and sometime murder suspected encroachers.

Shiekh Quaye said; "all those who engage in the recruitment of land guards will hence forth be held liable and dealt with according to the law. "We must stress here that no person irrespective of status or social standing found indulging in this practice will be spared." He, therefore, appealed to the public to volunteer useful information that would aid security agencies to stem the activities of land guards. The Minister said information available to the REGSEC suggested that some security personnel were being lured into the activities of land guards through the sale of arms to landowners, adding; "this is most regrettable as such actions constitute betrayal of the State and subversion by people entrusted to protect and defend the sovereignty of the State".

He asked all aggrieved persons to seek redress in the courts whenever disputes arose over ownership of land, adding, "under no circumstance should anybody, be he a chief, opinion leader or person in authority resort to violence as a means of settling any form of dispute".