Farmers Protest Over Treatment By NDC Guru

Accra - Settler and host farmers on lands acquired by government during the construction of the Kpong Hydro-Electric Power Project have protested against the ill-treatment being meted out to them by a certain Enoch Awasabi Gbertey.

In a petition titled 'Gbertey's harassment of settler and host farmers' and addressed to the Chronicle, the petitioners claimed that whiles the case is pending before a Koforidua High Court, Gbertey on April 5 and 6, this year went to the farms in a National Democratic Congress (NDC) pick-up truck with registration number GR 768 G and molested the farmers.

Again, on May 10, the petitioners alleged that Gbertey returned in the same vehicle, threatened the farmers and prevented them from cultivating the land.

In the petition, signed by six concerned farmers, they contended that Gbertey has been using the MP of the area, Hon Michael Nyaunu's tractor with registration number GT 5931 F, for ploughing and planting indiscriminately on the parcels of land allocated to them.

According to the complainants, Gbertey claims that the land surrounded by the River Ojudor, the main trunk road from Kpong to Accra to Abusakope belongs to him.

In view of this, he has since 1983 been harassing the farmers with court actions, threatening them with guns and forceful harvesting their farm produce, the petitioners added.

According to the farmers, the land indispute was acquired through Executive Instrument 35 and developed into farmlands and parcelled out to them.

Furthermore, they said in the wake of the Kpong Hydro-Electric Project, the government acquired the lands for the purposes of building the dam.

As a result of the unhealthy nature of the situation, the Volta River Authority stepped in and took the matter before court in solidarity with the farmers.

Chronicle can confirm that an official search conducted at the registry of the court on September 13, last year, revealed that with the exception of a fourth defendant, Jacob Tettey, Gbertey and his accomplices have failed to file their statements of defence within the statutory period allowed by the High Court.

As such the affected farmers are appealing to the authorities involved in the handling of the case, to expedite action on the suit to enable them cultivate their lands in peace and bring Gbertey to book.