La Land Demo: Military apologises for assault

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has apologised for the injuries caused to journalists and some civilians during a demonstration.

Several people sustained injuries as soldiers quelled the protests by angry residents of La who had accused the military of annexing their lands.

The indigenes have accused the military of forcibly encroaching on their lands countless time, with several protests in the past.

The military beat up civilians they cited with sticks and dragged others on the ground on Thursday, April 15.

Journalists were not spared, including orders for them to delete photos and videos of the demonstration.

In a statement describing the development as unfortunate, GAF said it would probe the development.

GAF explained that the area had key military installations, so they had to act.

“In order to restrain the demonstrators, reasonable force had to be applied to remove them. Thus, in the process, some of the demonstrators/persons got injured. It later came to light that some of the injured persons were journalists who were there to cover the event”.

GAF said it picked intelligence that the protestors were marching towards Burma Camp.

“A reconnaissance team was dispatched to confirm the report but they could not determine the intentions of the demonstrators. On seeing the soldiers, the demonstrators who had no police permit to demonstrate became violent. The reconnaissance team called for reinforcement which came to stop the violent youth from causing any damage to military installations,” the release added.

 

The recent demonstration followed a notice the youth served about a month ago.

Fight over La lands

Twice on the eve of elections in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo promised the traditional authority in La, Accra, that he would return to them the appropriated lands no longer needed by the government.

A few days to the 2016 general election, the NPP flagbearer at the time, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised the La people that, as long as the GAF lands belong to the indigenes, he would return to the rightful owners the portions no longer needed by the military.

According to the Coalition of La Associations (COLA), President Akufo-Addo, after serving a full term in office, failed to honour his word to return the land to its rightful owners if elected President.

The Spokesman for COLA Jeffery Tetteh told theghanareport.com that President Akufo-Addo returned to the La community on his last day of campaigning in December 2020 to renew his promise to the elders of the La Stool that the land would be returned to them in no time.

Consequently, they were invited to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to sign a memorandum of understanding to concretise the agreement.

On their way to the Lands Ministry, they received a call from the Lands Commission’s Chief Director, telling them to turn back and be recalled another day, but they were not called back.

Not long after that, they noticed containers being brought to an area near the Military Cemetery that had been cleared.

Seeing the bad faith exercised by the government and the military, the traditional authorities announced in a press conference that the land in question belonged to the La people.

The lands had been duly returned to the people in an agreement with the government and the GAF.

However, the skirmishes by the military compelled the community to call the attention of the whole world to the injustice being handed to the La people.

Not long ago, representatives of the La community caught up with the Minister of Lands at the Lands Commission, who promised to take up the matter, and asked that the petition of the La people be sent to him.

However, the community representatives have resolved not to send the Lands Minister another petition, knowing that his office already has the petition and needed only to implement the MOU, signed by the concerned parties, to return the lands in question.

The community, in frustration, invoked 99 deities in La to fight their cause by compelling the government to deliver on the promise.

The Greater Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, engaged the community, promising that if the document returning the lands to the community is produced, he will set up an enquiry to see how to resolve the issue.

The Trade Fair site, South La Estates, Labone Estates, Cantonments, Presbyterian Secondary School (PRESEC), University of Ghana, Amrahia Farms were all La Stool lands given to the government for development.

Some of the lands were appropriated, while others were acquired with a compensation arrangement.

It was found out that some of the lands in question are no longer being used for the intended purpose, whereas others are no longer required for the purpose they were acquired.

Some were leases and others acquisitions. The lease period had expired on some of the lands.

In the case of Burma Camp, for example, the La community argued that only 23.7 acres of land were given out in 1953 to the Ghana Armed Forces for the construction of the Giffard Camp.

The terms of the agreement stipulated a renewal after a 10-year period, deserving a re-negotiation in 1963, but was never renewed.

The terms of agreement for the lease require that the government pays GBP 20 annually to the La Stool.

COLA claims that the government failed to pay anything for the land over the years.

The GAF has reportedly overstepped the boundaries of the agreement to the extent that it now occupies more than 3,000 acres of La Stool land.

Without taking steps to formalise propositions to take up more land in areas beyond Teshie and Adjiringanor, the military went ahead to annex those lands.

The people of La find it unreasonable that their community is degenerating into a slum with no space for expansion, although they have land being encroached upon by the military.

The various associations in La, on behalf of the La Traditional Authority, proposed that lands lying fallow should be released to indigenes who are inclined to farming activities.

Attempts by the local people to cultivate okra, watermelon and other crops saw their farm produce destroyed by the military, and the area barricaded.

In 2018 a petition was sent to the Ministry of Lands, following which a tripartite committee was formed, with the Lands Ministry and the Lands Commission, representing government; Ghana Armed Forces represented by the military; and the representatives of the La Traditional Council.

It was announced at the committee that the government had released the lands to the La Stool, showing the portion demarcated for the GAF.

The demarcated land sizes were shown to the two sides.

Despite that, the military still went to put scattered structures on the land to make it seem occupied and inaccessible, as a strategy to deter the government from returning the land to the La Traditional Council, as agreed.

“While the La community was negotiating with the government for the return of those lands, the Armed Forces used bullying tactics to prevent the community from returning to their land,” said the spokesperson of COLA.

The action of the military compelled the community to cause a commotion, with a resolve to agitate the military step anytime on the land earmarked to be returned to the community to cater for the growth in population.

“It may end in bloodshed, but anytime the military step onto the disputed territory; we shall engage in a confrontation. In fact, the military will have to kill all the descendants of the La community to able to annex our land,” they stressed in defiance.