Spare parts dealers located in Garages Zone 12 within Suame Magazine, a district under the Suame Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region, have staged a protest against the Assembly, raising concerns about potential land encroachment.
The dealers assert that the government of Ghana allocated the land to them, represented by the Association of Garages, in 1989 through an executive instrument.
They emphasized that they regularly pay ground rent for the usage of the land. Notably, they claim that the land in question holds the same significance as Komfo Anokye Hospital and KNUST.
Consequently, they express their intent to resist any efforts by local chiefs and the municipal chief executive to initiate the sale of the land.
“This land was given to us by the government in 1989 through an executive instrument; the government passed it through Parliament, and Parliament handed it over to the Lands Commission before it was given to us. We pay grounds rent to the Lands Commission because the government took the land from some six chiefs.”
“The land is just like the one used to build Komfo Anokye Hospital and KNUST, but they have realised that we, the spare parts dealers, don’t have any muscles, so the Chiefs and Assembly want to take the land from us,” Issah Zakari, the Chairman of Garages Zone 12, told Rainbow Radio Accra.