Tarkwa residents demonstrate against AngloGold Ashanti [Photos]

Over 200 landowners in Tebrebe in the Tarkwa municipality on Friday demonstrated at the premises of AngloGold Ashanti’s Iduaprim mine in the Western Region.

The landowners claim the company has taken over their 780 acres (313.33 acres) of land from some 800 land for the past two years without any form of compensation despite assurances.

They demonstrators blocked the entry to the site burning tyres and chanting war songs.

They alleged that Anglo Gold employed some military personnel, at the time, to brutalize the property owners any time they demand for compensation.

They further claimed that a negotiations committee established have the matter resolved had yielded no positive results.

Some of the demonstrators who spoke to Citi News said they will keep demonstrating “until their grievances are resolved.”

One of the residents by name, Cudjoe, narrated that “Anglo Gold expressed interest in taking over the 780-acres of land at Tebrebe. They then went to the chief of the community to start negotiations. In the course they were told to deal with the owners of the land as the chief had lawfully sold the land to them.”

“AngloGold then decided to form a committee to foresee the transfer of ownership of the land from the land owners. They [Anglogold] begun working on some portions of the land without waiting for recommendations from the committee.”

“Those who resisted were brutalized by the military and any effort to get them on the negotiation table has been futile,” he lamented.