Nii Torgbor Abrenseh III (middle) addressing the media.
RESIDENTS OF Osu have opposed the plans by government under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, to develop the beach front in Accra.
The Marine Drive Investment Project seeks to modernize the beach front in Accra to make the city a trade and economic hub in the West African sub-region.
The project jointly financed by three Chinese companies would cover the land stretching from the Osu Castle through the Independence Square to the Arts Centre in Accra.
But Nii Torgbor Abrenseh III, the Shippi of Osu Anehor, one of the four quarters of Osu, who addressed the press, said “no attempts were made to engage the elders and people of Anehor or Osu in general before the making of this Instrument.”
He added that “no respect was accorded the chiefs and people of Osu in this blatant takeover of our ancestral lands.”
“We consider this attempt as an abuse of executive power and we shall resist the takeover in every possible way open to us,” he said.
According to him, “Osu Anerhor has nowhere to resettle her citizens even if she was reminded to do so as the authorities have not seen it fit to even discuss the matter, in other words, the authorities are unmindful of the hardships that people displaced by the exercise will face.”
He indicated that “we the citizens of Osu Anehor are saying that in the name of peace this forceful acquisition of our land must be rescinded with immediate effect,” adding that “we are a peace loving people but we hope that our peaceful nature is not mistaken for weakness.”
According to him, “the people of Osu and for that matter the Anehor quarter have not benefitted from governments – past and present – in the development of our communities, stressing that the Marine Drive Investment Project will benefit only foreigners and not Osu indigenes.”
“Yes, the authorities are in a hurry to pander to the whims, delicate tastes and leisure of rich foreigners at the expense of indigenes,” he said, adding that “the authorities find it more important at this stage of our national life to please foreigners than to improve the welfare of the citizens of this country in general and Osu in particular.”
BY Melvin Tarlue