Company plans to eject Bortianor residents

It has emerged that scores of residents living in Dunkonan New Bortianor, a suburb of Accra, are living in fear.

It follows move by management of Alrotech Company Limited, an Accra-based estate developer, to use all legal means to eject about seven hundred (700) residents on its vast lands at Dunkonan New Bortianor near Weija in Accra.

According to the company, these residents have "haphazardly and arbitrarily" encroached upon some 13,959,68 acres of its lands which it acquired legally from indigenous owners of Bortianor at Dunkonan New Bortianor in the late 1990s which the company intends to reclaim through an ejection exercise.

Mincing no words management of Alrotech Company Limited stressed that some elders and kingmakers of Bortianor Royal Stool of James Town in Accra who ‘illegally’ re-sold parts of the said lands to developers about eight years ago at the time that the company was litigating the matter in court were not the indigenous owners of the land.

Accordingly, the company directed all developers, companies, churches, education institutions and organisations which are on their lands at Dunkonan New Bortianor to urgently contact the company for the proper regularisation of their land documents or have their properties demolished.

Speaking in an exclusive with Today on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 in Accra, Managing Director of Alrotech Company Limited, Mr. Roland Albert Tetteh, called the bluff of Bortianor Royal Stool over their ownership claim of the said acres of lands at Dunkonan New Bortianor, emphasising that the "encroachers risk the demolition of their structures, if they fail to regularise their documents covering the land with the company."

The reaction of the company comes in the wake of some elders and kingmakers of Bortianor Royal Stool jointly led by Bortianor Royal Family member, Nii Ogbamey Tetteh, and Dzasetse of Bortianor, Nii Klemesu I, who organised a press conference recently to accuse the company of illegally taking over the said acres of land at New Bortianor after ignoring a report by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), now Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which made it clear that Alrotech was not the rightful owners of the said lands.

The owners of the company, the media report mentioned, were the acting Bortianor Mantse, Nii Akotey, known in private life as Mr. William Erikson Mensah and Chairman of Lands Commission, Mr. Anani Darko, and Mr. Roland Albert Tetteh.

In that story, elders and kingmakers of Bortianor Stool further accused the owners of the company of what they considered as an “unlawful” demolition exercise being undertaken by Alrotech Company Limited which happened three weeks ago with the tacit support of some top officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

According to residents of Bortianor, although the case was pending at the Appeals Court in Accra, the company was still selling and demolishing buildings on Dunkonan New Bortianor lands without the consent of the rightful owners of the said vast acres of land.

But in a quick rebuttal, Mr. Tetteh described the ownership claim at Dunkonan New Boartinor by the elders and kingmakers of Bortianor Royal Stool as “criminal and disrespectful” to the laws of the country.

“You (referring to this reporter) after a Fast Track High Court in Accra presided over by His Lordship, Justice N.M.C. Abodakpi, on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 gave judgment over the long standing suit between Nii Ofoli Kwei Quarcoo and Nii Akotey IV & 5 ORS, involving the lands at Bortianor township and environs which started at the court in 2007 in favour of Nii Akotey IV of Alrotech Company Limited, we secured a demolition order from the Accra High Court which copy we have served the Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, Municipal Chief Executive of Ga South Municipal Assembly, Greater Accra Regional Minister, Office of the President-Flagstaff House, and SCC Police Station in Weija.

“...and that we even went ahead to paste notice inviting those who “fraudulently acquired our landing properties in Dunkonan New Bortianor” to come to our office for regularisation of their land documents or face demolition on Sunday, September 20, 2015…but we did not carry out any demolishing exercise on the lands which issue has become subject of raging controversy between the company and the Bortianor Royal Stool,” Mr. Tetteh explained.

Flanked by the Accountant of Alrotech, Mr. Isaac Addo, Mr. Tetteh said they could not do anything untoward on the land, saying that security personnel of the company have been carrying out daily monitoring to find out any form of encroachment.

He decried the current arbitrary encroachment activities by some elders and kingmakers of Bortianor and the public on lands belonging to Alrotech Company Limited.

“We acquired the land somewhere in the ‘90s and there are documents at the Lands Commission, indenture and title deeds to prove that,” he affirmed.

Mr. Tetteh added that his outfit acquired 13,959,68 acres of land “but there have been several judgments over the land and which judgments have all been in favour of Nii Akotey and Alrotech Company Limited.”

“Why should we claim lands that are not ours? We have no plans of demolishing buildings on the land. Some individuals have made payments and others are yet to pay,” he said.

Mr. Tetteh provided documentary proof to back his claim that the land in question indeed belongs to Alrotech Company Limited, saying the acquisition had been reversed and the land reverted to the company by the indigenous owners of the lands at Dunkonan New Bortianor.

A copy of a court judgment Mr. Tetteh showed to Today indicated that an Accra Fast Track High Court Division, presided over by His Lordship, Mr. Justice N.M.C. Abodakpi, had, on April 30, 2013 granted perpetual injunction to restrain the plaintiff, one Nii Ofoli Kwei Quarcoo, from interfering in anyway with the land after awarding a cost of GH¢50,000 in favour of the defendants, which included Alrotech Company Limited and Nii Akotey IV.

According to Mr. Tetteh, at that his company was litigating the matter in court, members of Bortinaor Royal Stool took advantage of the situation and resold the company’s acquired acres of land to four different persons.

To this end, Mr. Tetteh dared the Bortianor Royl Stool to come forth and deny this claim if indeed they did not resell Alrotech lands to private individuals.

He therefore gave the assurance that Alrotech will go ahead with its plan to eject all encroachers on its lands," stressing that the company will soon publish a list of all encroachers on the land and invite them to regularise their stay."