?Cola Appeals to ?pres to Intervene in ?looting of La Lands

By Lawrence Markwei and Evangel Kelvin Ainoo

The Coalition of La Association (COLA) has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene in the arbitrary acquisition of La lands by the Ghana Armed Forces.

According to COLA, numerous petitions signed by the late La Mantse and the elders of the La Traditional Council sent to the Office of the President with regards to the irregular and clandestine acquisition of the lands have not yielded the necessary response.

Mr Joseph Quaye, Public Relations Officer of COLA, in a press conference in Accra last Monday said the indigenes of La would hit the streets in the absence of any response after this appeal.

He said that the Ghana Armed Forces and the Lands Commission were in collusion to grab La lands, "using the new "illegal" Military Cemetery together with the erection of a statue of the late Major Adam Mahama to have access to a vast stretch of land belonging to the La people".

Mr Quaye said the Ghana Armed Forces were using the siting of Major Mahama's statue as a ploy to have access to the vast land, adding that the people of La would use constitutional means to resist the arbitrary acquisition.

He said governments in the past have used state and non-state actors, including security services against the legitimate land owners, in this case, the La people, saying, "We shall lodge a case of state sponsored systematic genocide and landlessness at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations (UN)."

Mr Quaye said that COLA intended to expose all the "land looters" and invoke the jurisdiction of the Special Prosecutor for the necessary action to be taken against them in order for the people of La to repossess their ancestral lands.

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