Military, Police Exchange Fire Over Borteyman Land As …Akufo-Addo Bodyguard Capt. Koda, 2 Others Dragged To Court For Contempt Charges

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There was heavy exchange of gunfire between a team of police personnel from the Greater Accra Regional Police Command and some landguards allegedly aided by military officers said to come from the seat of government, the Jubilee house on Sunday morning in a dispute over a parcel of land situated at Borteyman/Adjirigarno which is owned by the Nungua stool. 

The police had been invited to the land by the Nungua Stool to ensure law and other following complaints that landguards and military officers claiming to come from Jubilee House have been dispatched onto the several acres of land and were aiding in the demolishing and onward construction despite an existing court injunction prohibiting parties in the dispute from encroaching on the land.

The regional team went onto the land on Friday afternoon and invited parties to the regional police command for their statements amid strong opposition from some of the military officers who later obliged for leaders of the landguards to go with the police whilst construction works continue.

However, on Sunday morning there was a clash between the police and the landguards aided by the military as a result of the insistence to continue with the demolishing and construction works on the land despite the court injunction.

Amid the sporadic exchange of fire, the dozens of labourers and masons including the carpenters on the land took to their heels as the exchanges intensified.

The Nungua Stool and Officers of Topkings Estate Limited accused President Akufo-Addo’s Bodyguard, Captain Edmund Odamtey Koda of leading the military officers to flout the court injunction restranining parties from encroaching the land.

In view of that, they have dragged Captain Edmund Koda and two others, namely Eugene Sowah Odamtey and Hares Muda to an Accra High Court Land Division for contempt of court over their alleged involvement in the demolition exercise on the huge parcel of land at Borteyman/Adjirigarnon in the Greater Accra Region.

The land is already under litigation between the Ashaley Botwe and the Nmai Dzorn families both of whom claim ownership despite the land belonging to the Nungua Stool. Whereas the two families are before the High Court, Accra (Land Division 8) in suit No: L/2970/93, Adjetey Agbosu and others Vs Ebenezer Nikoi Kotey and others over the land, ownership of the said parcel of land was affirmed  to belong to the Nungua Stool in 2003 and 2014 in a High Court and Appeal Court rulings which were further affirmed in a Supreme Court decision of December 2020 in a case involving Empire Builders (Plaintiff), Ernesto Taricone (Respondent), Top Kings  Enterprise Limited (Respondent) and the Nungua Stool (Respondent) in the suit titled: Civil Appeal No. J4/10/2019).