The chiefs said Nana Asante Bediatuo who owns Sandbox Beach Resort is claiming ownership to a parcel of land close to his resort illegally.
Allegations over land: Apologise or meet me in court – Nana Asante Bediatuo to Ga chiefs
The Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, has denied allegations leveled against him by some aggrieved chiefs and people of La, specifically the Abafum Djaase, who accused him of taking their land illegally.
Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo
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They said he [Asante Bediatuo] has proceeded to destroy a fence wall around the disputed land.
The leader of the delegation, Jeffrey Tetteh, warned Nana Asante Bediatuo to stay off the land or he will have himself to blame.
According to him, prior to the 2016 election, with the full support of the entire Ga Dangme people, they staged a series of agitations to demand the release of their lands from the then-administration.
"When the government called our bluff, history took its course.
Nana Asante Bediatuo
Pulse Ghana
"You will recall, once again, from the 10th to the 25th of August this year, a group from the Akyem state, led by one Nana Sarpong Kumankuma, claiming to be the Mponuahene of Apedwa, attempted to raid about 25 Ga villages with the support of the Ghana Army when they descended on the village of Dome Faase. It took the courage of the people to drag them out with fury," he said at a press conference.
"Just yesterday, 29th September 2020, at about 7 pm, one Nana Asante Bediatuo, who happens to be the Executive Secretary to the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and also an Akyem, once again, descended on La lands with impunity in the company of his wife or girlfriend, Sarah Femi Adetola, and some weapon-bearing thugs and destroyed a concrete wall that has just been constructed by the Abafum people of La on their land.
"Bediatuo, who acquired the Sandbox Beach Resort from one Lee Ocran, son of Ghana’s former Education Minister and diplomat, Ambassador Lee Ocran of blessed memory, in a transaction not recognised and formalised by the Abafum people and for that matter the La state, blatantly said last night that he, Bediatuo, was going to use state machinery under this NPP government to annex a parcel of land adjacent the Sandbox Beach Resort," he added.
However, lawyers for Nana Bediatuo Asante have refuted the allegations leveled against their client by the chiefs.
In a statement issued by Minkah-Premo & Co on 1 October 2020, it stated that the allegations are "absolutely false."
"We state emphatically that our client does not own nor has any interest in Sandbox Beach Resort. We further state that our client has neither acquired nor claimed title to any parcel of land adjacent to it," the statement noted.
The legal firm also noted that the assertion that their client used the nation’s machinery, or took advantage of his influence in the Akufo-Addo-led government to lead armed thugs to the said site, to seize the parcel of land is "is wholly untrue and utterly despicable."
It stated: "As an accomplished lawyer of high repute, with vast experience in land acquisition by lawful means, our client is acutely familiar with the complex legal processes of acquiring land, and therefore, does not need to resort to illegal means of any kind in order to acquire land should he wish to."
The lawyers, therefore, demanded that the delegation of Ga chiefs who made the "spurious, unfounded, libelous" allegations render an unqualified apology within the next 48 hours, adding that refusal to heed the demand could attract a defamation suit.
"We have advised our client on the various legal options available to him, including initiating action in defamation in the event that the above demand is not heeded.
"It is our fervent hope that the originators of these reprehensible untruths will do the needful in order that finality can be brought to this matter," the statement added.
Nana Asante Bediatuo's lawsuit:
Lawsuit
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