By Edmund Mingle
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| One of Koan Building Solution's bulldozers destroying an uncompleted building of one of the property owners. |
A group of property owners at Kutunse, a suburb of Accra, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police for the urgent intervention of the police to stop the illegal construction activities of an estate developer which is causing insecurity in the area.
According to the Concerned Property Owners of Kutunse, Kofi Anokye, Chief Executive of Koans Building Solutions, an estate firm, has been leading landgaurds to terrorise land owners in his attempt to forcibly take over their plots.
The petition, jointly signed by Francis Boahen, the chairman and 18 of the affected property owners, and presented to the IGP’s office of Friday, accused Mr. Anokye of leading violent attacks on individual property owners to take away theilegally acquired and registered plots.
In addition, they accused Mr. Anokye of getting away with the crime by using his acquaintance with some senior police officers.
“We the property owners and residents of Kutunse wish to bring to your attention developments in the area that are creating a lot of insecurity at Kutunse, a suburb of Accra.
“The insecurity stems from the conduct and actions of an estate developer, Mr. Kofi Anokye, CEO of KOANS Building Solutions Ltd, who has been
terrorizing individual developers in an attempt to forcibly take over their legally acquired and registered plots of land for his estate project expansion.
“He has armed land-guards who have been beating us anytime we visit our site to work. In addition, he has been demolishing our buildings, most of which are at the roofing level, thereby preventing us to complete our projects without any basis.
“Hardly a day passes without the sound of sporadic shooting by his land-guards, putting the lives of people including new residents and construction workers in danger,” petition said.
According to the petition, the members of the group legally acquired the plots from one Samuel Kpakpo Allotey of Accra and had registered them without any objection from any quarters.
“Our main worry is that anytime we are beaten and we report the case to the Police, virtually nothing is done to bring Mr. Anokye to order,” it said, alleging that “He has been using the names of senior police officers, as his backing to perpetuate these crimes.”
Proving some explanation for the allegation, it said “anytime, he comes to the area to demolish our property, he would be heard bragging about his close acquaintance with senior Police Officers.”
“A case in point was on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, when two of us were brutally beaten by the estate developer and his gang as we tried to stop the gang from demolishing our structures.
“After managing to escape, the two went to the Amasaman Police Station to report the matter, only for Mr. Anokye to appear and started giving the policemen on duty at the charge office orders on how to handle the case, and rather accusing our beaten colleagues of being land guards,” it said.
In his quest to forcibly take over the area by illegal means, it said Mr. Anokye has been putting up a number of structures on demarcated access roads and drains, with some of the structures blocking entrances of houses.
It said the group has repeatedly asked Mr. Anokye to take legal action against anyone he believed has encroached on his estate land, “but he has failed to do, and rather resorted to terrorizing us.”
According to the group, Mr. Anokye has been defending his actions with a supposed court injunction on the land which has been nullified long ago with the ruling on the matter by a Koforidua High Court which ruled against him.
“In that matter, of which the court documents have been attached to this petition, Mr. Anokye sued Mr Samuel Kpakpo Allotey and two others over the portions of the land (which does not include ours). The court initially imposed an interlocutory injunction pending the determination of the case. “At the end, the court on November 12, 2013, found Mr. Anokye guilty of bringing the matter to the wrong court in the Eastern region since the land is in the Greater Accra Region. A cost of GHc1,000 was awarded against him in favour of the defendants, which he duly paid.
“Yet, Mr. Anokye continues to deceive people, including police personnel that he has secured an injunction on the land,” it said.
The group indicated in the petition that they could also use land-guards to wade off Mr. Anokye’s land-guards, “but we think that is not the best”.
“As law abiding citizens, we are by this petition appealing to you to use your good offices to ensure that he is called to order since he cannot take the law onto himself.
“There is the need for the Police to bring him to order for peace to prevail in Kutunse,” the petition added.
Meanwhile, the group has also petitioned the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to intervene in the matter.
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