THE head of the Adjinwoe family of Katamanso and the ruling Afotey-Agbo family, Mr Seth Otu Okley, has underscored the urgent need to protect the Katamanso Forest from further destruction and encroachment.
He said safeguarding the forest was critical as the people of Katamanso prepare to mark the 200th anniversary of the Katamanso War, fought in 1826 between the Ga-Adangbe and the Ashantis in the forest.
Mr Okley also called on the government to set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the alleged encroachment on the forest by real estate developers.
He made the appeal when he led journalists to the site, pointing out what he described as the location where the final gunshot that ended the war was fired. During the visit, an area said to have once been dense forest had been reduced to bare land, with numerous building structures erected.
Mr Okley lamented what he described as years of devastation and blamed the leadership of the Ga Traditional Council for failing to safeguard the site.
“There is an adjoining portion of the land labelled Osei Yaw Akoto Oil Palm Plantation which, according to our old men, sprung up after the war,” he said.
“This area, in particular, was designated by the late Nii Laryea Akweite as a place where the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs should be built. Unfortunately, the leadership that we have now, this is the way they have preserved this historical site,” he narrated.
“I call on the government to institute a fact-finding group, and I am available to provide the group with all the necessary information they need,” he added.
According to him, the individuals who allegedly sold portions of the forest to estate developers have not been identified, and he warned those responsible to desist from the act.
“We can’t tell where the owners of the building structures got their documents from. If there is anybody who sanctioned the sale of this forest, he should be bold enough to come and give us the facts that allowed him to have authority to dispose of an area so important to Ga history, and we are ready to listen to him with his legal documents,” Mr Okley said.
He stressed that the call to preserve the forest was intended to protect the historical heritage of the Ga-Dangbe State and was not driven by personal interest.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON TETTEY
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