Peaceful Demo Turns Bloody At Tema

Eighteen Members of the Concerned Youth of Kpone (CYK), sustained gunshot wounds yesterday when police fired warning shots during a demonstration.

Two of them, Daniel Antieye and Michael Akpeng, whose sustained serious head injuries, were referred to the Tema General Hospital for treatment.

The others who sustained minor injuries, were treated and discharged at the Kpone Health Centre.

They are Nicholas Nortey, Addy Noye, Joshua Opare, Emanuel Mensah, Mensah Tetteh, Evans Waka and Lawrence Qurashie.

Others  are Okueley Leno, Naomi Oboubi, Evelyn Noye, Dorothy Boateng, Naomi Narh and Ernest Akotia.

The rest are Nana Osei, Nuertey Solomon Akotia and Eric Noye Opare.

The three-hour peaceful demonstration was to enable the youth to protest against the Kpone Traditional Council (KTC) for lack of transparency, plundering the resources it holds on behalf of the people, and its refusal to account to the people.

The demonstration involving about 800 people, however turned murky, when some of the demonstrators decided to pull down a fence wall erected on a parcel of land believed to be part of the Kpone Public Cemetry.

The irate youth also burnt down the developer’s site office before turning their attention to the KTC offices.

The police who at that point, had been overwhelmed by the large number of the demonstrators, had to call for reinforcement which enabled them to take control of all the roads leading the the KTC.

The police resorted to the firing of warning shots, when some of the youth defied orders to stop at one of the barricades mounted to prevent them from accessing the offices of the KTC.

A 12-point petition addressed to the Greater Accra Regional Minister and copied Mr. Adzei Anang, the Council of State Member, the president of the KTC, the District Chief Executive of Kpone Katamanso and the Obodua of Kpone, called on the KTC to render account of all the monies accrued to it, being royalties from companies, sale of lands, compensation from the Volta River Authority over the erection of high tension poles as well as expenses made.

It said arguments made by the KTC that they do not render accounts to anyone are unfounded, and the anomaly must be corrected for transparency and accountability in the traditional council’s business.

The petition called for a proper land acquisition system in place, so that natives who had paid for lands could have access to them.

“We do not understand why some natives after paying for lands over 10 years ago, cannot have access to them but land is given out daily to outsiders because they pay exorbitant fees,” it said.

It urged the KTC to impress upon the corporate bodies operating in the area, to help put up a befitting senior high school, a community library, standard post office, recreational centre and the setting up of a scholarship fund administered by a private and transparent body to harness the human capital for national development.

The petition called for proceeds from the Kpone Engineered Landfill Site to be given to the Kpone Katamanso District Assembly, for the development of the district instead of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly.

The CYK gave the Registrar of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Mr. Harry Atipoe, a one week ultimatum to vacate the office he holds at the KTC, as they understood he had been transferred.

The petition expressed worry that five years after the operation of the Sunon Asorgli Power Plant, no Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between the company and the KTC.

The CYK also wondered why no native of Kpone had been employed at different levels of management in the company.

“The argument in the past has been that none of the natives possesses the requisite skills but thanks to education, now they abound,” it said.

The petition stressed the need for Kpone to be represented on the Board of Sunon Asorgli Power Plant so that concerns of the people would be articulated and considered.

It requested that Kpone be made to enjoy free and uninterrupted power supply as is the case of Akuse and Bui, because those places house hydro power plants, saying, “What is good for the goose is good for the gander”.

Source: Ghanaian Times