Give us back our lands – Kweiman chief to government

The chief of Kweiman, Nii Anang Amartey, has given the government a 14-day ultimatum to address concerns over what he says is the massive encroachment of Kweiman lands by the Chiefs of Oyarifa, Amanfrom and Danfa.

Nii Amartey has warned failure by government to intervene may cause instability in the community as they may take the laws into their hands. The chief

“We are giving them two weeks to hand over the land to us if there are laws in Ghana. The government will not like what will happen if it fails to intercede. Unless they kill all of us here.

"We won’t sit here and watch government take our land and give to people who are not even from here. We are not fighting government; we are doing what is right because there is law.”

Speaking to the media after a meeting with family and clan heads where a ram was slaughtered to invoke the powers of the gods, Nii Anang Amartey said several calls on government to intervene to prevent land guards and security personnel from encroaching further on their lands have proven futile.

Narrating the incident from the past, he said that somewhere in 1970, the government acquired the land from Kweiman, Danfa and Amrahia.

The government then named it ‘Kweiman-Amrahia dairy farm’ where the state rears cattle. However as time went on, the government did not use the all the land for the intended purpose hence their demand for return of the lands to the indigenes.

Nii Amartey revealed Danfa and Amrahia were compensated unlike Kweiman as a result of disputes between the families involved. The development resulted in litigation in the courts between the two Kweiman families.

According to him the Amartey family which he (Nii Amartey) represents won the case in 1992 and have since sent petitions and letters to the government for action.

He further disclosed in 2019, the family noticed some encroachments on the land, so they started calling on the government to draw their attention to it.

“We found out that there would be a demolition exercise on our land, so the government sent one Clement Dzato to us. He came and said the government said he should embark on the demolishing. Since 2019 to now he has sold more than 80 per cent of our land. 80 acres and he is there today with his land guards and boys,”. the family stated.