The Ghana Police Service is appealing to the general public to volunteer information on the whereabouts of the Land Guards who allegedly killed one person and injured two others at Adentan over the weekend.
The bullet-ridden body of a 32-year-old man believed to have been killed by Land Guards was found in a bush at Amanfrom, near Accra over the weekend.
The body of the deceased, identified only as Awal, has since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra, pending autopsy.
The injured include one Mr. Ofori, a man identified as the Chief Executive Officer of Irroko Estates. He was shot in the elbow and upper limb. Another victim, Kojo Abankwa, who was with Mr. Ofori at the time of the attack, also sustained gunshot wounds in the left thigh and left elbow.
Police say the two men are currently receiving medical attention at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
Some two days after Saturday’s attack, Police are yet to arrest the Land Guards who planned and executed the assault.
The term ‘Land Guards’ is a Ghanaian expression used loosely to define heavily armed thugs who are usually hired by land owners to protect their landed properties, especially those in dispute.
The menace of Land Guards in Ghana forced the establishment of a Special Unit within the Police Service about a decade ago to contain the threats the thugs pose to life and property. Years on, there are weekly reports of such gangsters attacking and maiming people who visit parcels of land whose ownership titles are in dispute.
Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Greater Accra Police Command, DSP Freeman Tettey, said although personnel of the Ghana Police Service have intensified their investigations into Saturday’s attack at Adentan, a tip off from informants will speed up the process and bring the culprits to book.
“What is important to us is to hunt for those criminals; the so called land guards” he said. “We want the people in the community or any other person with information that will lead to the arrest of those people to quickly get in touch with the Adentan police.”
So far, Police investigations have established that about 2 p.m. on Friday Land Guards attacked one Jonathan Ablade with cement blocks and clubs on the same piece of land on which Saturday’s attack took place.
The victim sustained severed wounds all over his body and was rushed to the Legon Hospital.
On Monday, The Daily Graphic quoted Adentan Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police Stephen Kofi Ahiatafu, saying the land in question was in dispute because the people of Oshiyie, Amanfrom and Katamanso were all claiming ownership.
The illegal industry of Land Guards appears to have become so attractive that even heavily armed foreigners have crept into the business of protecting their paymasters’ interest in disputed lands.
Recently, personnel of the National Security Council arrested eight persons, believed to be land guards from Niger in a police-military operation at the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) Acquisition Area. The suspects had buried over 800 cannon balls in some dugouts.
In June 2013, Members of Parliament appealed the Ghana Police Service to launch an all out war to eradicate the menace of Land Guards in the country.
The MPs were contributing to a statement by MP for Shai Osudoku, David Tetteh Assumeng, on the upsurge of land guards in his constituency. They observed that women and children were the most affected victims of violent clashes of Land Guards.
In his statement, Hon Assumeng “called for punitive sanctions to curb the action of land guards before it degenerates into an uncontrollable state.”
“The nation needs a decisive approach to deal with the issue,” he added.
By: Afiba Anyanzua/citifmonline.com/Ghana