An Accra Circuit Court ordered two people into police detention after they reportedly ruined three acres of a teacher’s pineapple and maize property after starting a sand winning operation. According to the accusations, the two accused people wrecked the farmland at Denchira, close to Amasaman, Accra.
Meschark Commey, 27, and Benjamin Duodo, 31, are accused of conspiring to commit crime, inflicting unlawful damage, receiving illegal sand, serving as a land guard, and making a dangerous threat. The defendants entered a not guilty plea in the presence of their attorney, and the court, presided over by Mrs. Samuel Bright Acquah, remanded them into police custody. It stated that the court had to put a halt to the land guards’ activity since there were too many of them in the nation.
According to the prosecution, which was headed by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Maxwell Oppong, the complainant, Emmanuel Bagut, was a teacher who lived in Denchira, close to Amasaman, and it was also where the accused people lived. According to the prosecution, the complainant leased seven acres of property in Denchira from Nii Amah Dzeben of Denchira in 2008 for an 18-year period to be used for farming. It claimed that the complainant had grown maize and pineapple on the property. According to the prosecution, the accused individuals allegedly went to the complainant’s property in 2022 and told her they would be winning sand on his pineapple crop.
According to the prosecution, the complainant reported the incident to Weija Police, and the accused individuals received a warning not to enter the complainant’s propert. However, the prosecution claimed that on January 10 and 11, 2023, the accused individuals entered the complainant’s seven-acre property with two excavators and began removing sand, destroying nearly three acres of pineapple and corn fields in the process.
According to the report, the complainant visited his property on January 13, 2023, and upon seeing that the accused individuals had ruined nearly three acres of land, he lodged a police report. The prosecution informed the court that the Police arrived at the crime scene that day and encountered the accused people on a motorcycle.
According to the report, the alleged offenders demanded that the complainant and the police leave the property immediately or face consequences. According to the prosecution, the accused individuals denied the offense in their caution statements after being detained by the police. They stated they went to the property to let the complaint know that it belonged to an estate developer by the name of “Seven Steps.”