Four land guards arrested at Okanta

Four land guards, including a machine operator, have been arrested by the Okyeman Land Protection Force with the support of some residents of Okanta and the Ghana Police Service on the Suhum – Nsawam highways. 

The four suspects, who said they were working for KOANS Building Solution, were in a company of several others with offensive weapons, clearing a parcel of land at Okanta and later became confrontational with the community members.

The four suspects are Samuel Desese, 38 years, Oboobi Godwin, 45 years, Kwaku Eric, 32 years, and Nifa Cann, 25 years, are currently under investigations at the Kyebi Divisional Police Headquarters.

Okyeman Akwansrahene and leader of the Okyeman Land Protection Force, Baffour Asiedu Bekoe, who led the arrest, disclosed to journalists that some community members of Okanta called him to complain about the invasion of the town by some people suspected to be land guards working on a parcel of land that belong to Okyeman.

According to Mr Bekoe,  he mobilised his team and informed the police about the activities of the land guards and with the support of the community members, went in to effect the arrest.

He said, some of the land guards threatened to deal with them, however,  they were able to overpower them and arrested four persons including a machine operator.

Others who were armed fled into the bush.

Mr Bekoe hinted that the Vigilante and Related offence Act 2019, Act 999 empowers persons within a neighbourhood or community to prevent the commissioning of an offence within that neighborhood so they acted under the guidance of the law to prevent the offence of  trespassing and stealing of Okyeman’s stool land.

He posited that, Section 3 of the Vigilante and Related Offence Act 2019, Act 999 prohibit the formation, organisation and operations of Vigilante groups and activities.

According to him, the law states in sub-section 2 that, whoever indulges in vigilante activities commit an offence and is liable to a term of imprisonment not less than 10 years.

He added that, Section 4 and 5 of Act 999 also spells out punishment for people who supported vigilante activities through funding and facilitation. To this end, he called on the Ghana Police Service to investigate the CEO of KOANS Building solutions for allegedly supporting vigilante activities contrary to Act 999.

He said Nananom would keenly follow how the police handle this investigation and where it would end.

Meanwhile, a source at the Kyebi Divisional Police Headquarters confirmed the arrest and said that investigation is ongoing.