The Head of Shia wulu (one of Gbese Royal Houses), Nii Teiko Akosoku IV, has described as inaccurate the announcement by certain people holding themselves to be royals from Gbese claiming that the KANTAMANTO land is for the Gbese stool.
He said that cannot be factual.
It will be recalled that the Gbese Mantse Nii Ayi Bonte II claimed ownership of the land a week after Transport Minister, Dzifa Ativor said the area will be turned into a railway terminal.
This was a couple of days after a blazing inferno gutted the entire market on Sunday, May 5, 2013.
The AMA chief executive, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije reportedly told the media a day after the incident that the area will be developed into a modern market for the traders.
But the Gbese Mantse warned that appropriate legal action will be taken to prevent any re-development of the burnt market.
According to him, the land was leased to the Ghana Railway Authority in 1908 for railway business and not for market purposes.
That lease, he said, expired in 2008 and required renewal before any re-development can take place there and is therefore prepared to go to court if they feel their rights are being trampled upon.
But the Head of Shia wulu (one of Gbese Royal Houses) sharply disputes Nii Ayi Bonte's claims.
Speaking to a section of the media, Nii Akosoku IV explained that the Railways land in question was first acquired by the Gold Coast Government in 1909 for the Accra Railway Harbour Project. According to him, the colonial government at that time negotiated with the Korle elders on behalf of the 3 stools that is Ga, Gbese and Korle.
He further disclosed that, in 1932, a second acquisition was negotiated with the same 3 stool elders for an expansion of the railway project from Accra to Achimota.
�A final acquisition was made for the colonial government in 1946 expanding the railway project from Achimota to Adjen Kotoku and this agreement has remained so until it expired in 2008,� he stressed.
Nii Teiko Akosoku IV therefore explained that the negotiations had always been done with the three (3) Royal Houses and not one as some are claiming.
He emphasized that the KANTAMANTO railway land, as it is now, cannot be said to belong to only the people of Gbese, but rather for Ga, Gbese and Korle stools.
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