The Coalition of La Youth Association (COLA) has expressed disgust over the Defense Minister’s claims that lands being occupied by the Military in the area were duly acquired and compensated for.
The group has therefore threatened to take matters in their own hands should the military continue to occupy the said disputed lands.
Speaking at a media encounter Thursday, Dominic Nitiwul said “with the Labadi…the firing range there is a portion of [it] that belongs to the Military. It was acquired by the Military…in fact by the government…the whole area was acquired.”
“So, technically, if I buy land from you, it [will] be difficult for you to say now this is my land. It is no more for you. That land was acquired and compensation was paid,” he added.
But in his reaction, Jeffery Nii Adokwei spokesperson for COLA dismissed the Defense Minister’s claims as untrue and shocking.
“Government has never acquired the lands in question,” he said on Starr Today Thursday.
According to him, in 1963 government was given a parcel measuring about 23.7acres for use after the world wars to keep military accoutrements as well as some of the ex-servicemen together with the newly trained soldiers then.
He continued that the government then was supposed to pay a compensation of 10 pounds each year for ten years but it reneged on the agreement.
“Government was supposed to occupy the land for just ten years…but they have over stayed. Government has extended the land, taking lands measuring over 3000 acres and they have not initiated any step to acquire the land officially,” said Nii Adokwei contrary to the Defense Minister’s claims.
Obviously livid by the claims, he threatened ‘fire and furry’ should the military continue to occupy the lands he argued were wrongly acquired.
“The people of La and the people of Ga Dangbe are going to rise and we rise up, there is no military tactics that can be used to stop us,” he warned.
He said following the Defense Minister’s claims they have convened an emergency meeting Thursday with another to follow Friday to determine their next move saying “people are getting awake day in…day out and to be honest with you what is going to happen next nobody will like in this country.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
