My Friend Was Forced To Fled

According to one Muhideen Suraju, some estate development contractors are working with land guards and thugs to intimidate people to unwillingly sell off their properties to them.

Disturbed Muhideen was of the view that these estate developers will unleash their land guards and thugs on anyone who refused to sell his properties to them.

Muhideen Suraju was speaking at the sidelines of a forum organized by the Friends Society, a Civil Society Organization [CSO] to sensitize residents of Kasoa and its environs in the Central Region, on the need to acquire litigation free plots and lands as well as proper documentation of land properties.

He said his friend by name Osman Ali was forced to fled Ghana because of such bad precedents been masterminded by the estate developers. Ali Osman who inherited his late father’s plots of land was confronted by this estate developer who expressed his interest in the said plots of land.

Ali refused to accept the offer because that’s the only valuable property left behind by his late father to the family and that they cannot sell that property for any price to anyone. Unknowingly to Ali and his mother, their refusal to sell the land infuriated the estate developer.

The estate developer who works with thugs known as land guards, unleashed these thugs on Ali who was picked from his house one afternoon and bundled into a waiting van parked in front of their house.

The objective of that action by the estate developer and his thugs was to torture Ali severely in order to force him to accept their offer and sell that piece of land to them. Ali was made to go through severe punishment in the hands of those thugs to the extent he was left with no option than to accept the offer under duress.

‘’He only accepted their offer in order to save his life order than that he would be killed ‘’. My friend sustained some degrees of injuries and had to be admitted and treated at a hospital for two good weeks’’ Muhideen explained.

Several weeks after Ali had been discharged from the hospital, he was again attacked by another unknown motor bike rider. I was walking with Ali one day when this incident happened as the motor bike rider tried to slashed Ali’s neck with a machete. Ali managed to save with his left hand resulting in a cut in the left arm.

That incident put fear in Ali that resulted in him fleeing Ghana. He traveled to Turkey for the fear of his life. The last time he called me he told me that he feels secure living abroad than in Ghana.

Muhideen therefore used the occasion to appeal to estate developers to use proper means in acquiring properties. ‘’ You cannot force someone to sell his property to you without his or her will’’, he quizzed.

The one day forum brought together officials from the lands commission, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, estate developers, building contractors, landlords, utility regulators, the security, traditional leaders and the media.

By: Mohammed Saani Ibrahim