DISTURBING REPORTS reaching DAILY GUIDE from Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region indicate that over 50 National Democratic Congress (NDC) youth last Thursday stormed a farmland belonging to a private company in a Kia truck and destroyed farm inputs.
They also caused harm to the company workers.
The NDC youth, who have been engaged under the Greening Ghana Project, an afforestation project under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), with backings from the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, want to seize the land from the company though the chiefs have warned them not to step foot on the land.
Peter Amo, a management member of Royale Feed Company Limited, an agro-based company whose farmland was attacked by the NDC boys, told DAILY GUIDE that around 9.30am on Thursday, some NDC youth who have been employed under the Greening Ghana Project stormed the 216 acres of farmland at a time about 45 workers were working.
He said the thugs, who had been asked by the Omanhene of Nkoranza Traditional Area, Okatakyie Agyeman Kodum IV, not to step foot on the farm again, were armed with machetes and clubs, which they used to assault the workers.
Two of the workers, a driver of a tractor, Akwasi Asuah, 50, and his assistant, Adu Kofi, 20, told DAILY GUIDE that they were assaulted because they could not run away and leave behind the tractor they were working with.
They sustained various degrees of injuries as a result of the sticks and other offensive weapons they were beaten with. The tractor and other farm inputs they were working with were also damaged.
During the attack, those who managed to escape called in the police, but the gang fled before the police arrived.
A day after the said ambush, the gang returned to the farm again, this time chanting war songs whiles daring management of the company to vacate the farm land or risk their lives. They claimed the parcel of land had been offered to them by the DCE to undertake an afforestation project.
No arrest has been made, but a source at the Nkoraza Police Station hinted that the police are hunting for the leader of the group, who was only identified as Appiagyei.
Meanwhile, the Presiding Member of the Nkoranza District Assembly, Isaac Asirifi Kudom, has condemned the act of the gang, describing the group’s action as illegal.
According to the Presiding Member, the estimated cost of the repair works to be carried out on the damaged tractor is about GH¢18,000, whiles extra funds have to be acquired to pay for the allowances of the gang.
The Nkoranza Traditional Council signed a 5-year tenancy agreement with the Royale Feed Company to rent a 216-acre of land meant for agricultural purposes at Dandwa, near Nkoranza.
However, a group of people, believed to be instigated by the DCE, are using all foul means to take the parcel of land from the company.
From Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Nkoranza
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