On March 28, 1996, Awulae Annor Adjaye III, Paramount Chief of the Western Nzema Traditional location, made 9 unwary chiefs indication and thumbprint a Site Plan (Map) captioned strategy OF WESTERN LIMESTONE PRODUCTS herein described as MULTIWALL PAPER SACKS LTD. One of the Chiefs, Nana Amihere Ndum V1 of Ndum Suazo, whose name likewise appears on the Plan neither signed nor thumb-printed it.
A leasehold contract was carried out in between Nana Adonle Kpanyinli III, Chief of Nawuley and Multiwall Paper Sacks (WA) Ltd, represented by Dr J. A. Addison, its Managing Director on March 9, 1988. Members of the Ndweafo stool family consisting of the Abusuakpanyinli did not understand anything about this secret contract and the alienation of 6.155 square miles, about 3,939.21 acres of land coming from the Nawuley stool to Dr Addison till 2009. As showed above, this contract was covertly, clandestinely, and surreptitiously carried out and the leasehold contract concealed from other members of the royal family for twenty years.
Like the Site Plan, the signatories to the leasehold contract were mainly illiterate and might not be said to have actually comprehended and valued the complete significance and import of the contract.
Similarly, like the promoters and sponsors of the Petroleum Hub, Dr Addison, the promoter at the time, did not have the necessary capital and for that reason chose to move the leasehold to GHACEM Ltd.
While the unlawful and deceptive leasehold contract stayed unsettled, Awulae Annor Adjaye III on 6 January 2010 bought GHACEM Ltd to go on with the extraction of the limestone deposits at Nawuley for their cement factory at Takoradi. This instruction provoked the Ndweafo royal family of Nawuley, the owners of the land as released in the Daily Graphic on 4 and 25 February 2010.
The apparent ramification of Awulae Annor Adjaye III’s orders was that the Ndweafo royal family was poor and might for that reason not participate in any legal fight with Multiwall Paper Sack (WA) Ltd. Presumably, individuals of Western Nzema, aka Jomoro (the impacted neighborhoods and their households) and the worried Nzema people are likewise too poor to combat Awulae’s abundant Hub sponsors and the existing Government.
A date was designated for the inauguration and transfer of the property to GHACEM by His Excellency President Dr Atta Mills of extremely blessed memory.
When the details reached the Abusua Kpanyinli of the Nawule Ndweafo Royal family, a popular legal specialist from the said Royal family, living in Accra, fast submitted an injunction to stop the prepared inauguration and served a Notice of Abrogation of the Leasehold Agreement. His Excellency the President was appropriately encouraged not to get associated with the spurious offer. He required.
Thirteen years after the Nawuley legend, Awulae Annor Adjaye III as Chairman of the Ghana Petroleum Hub is now leading some business owners, concealing behind the state of Ghana, to obtain 20,000 acres of land, consisting of the exact same parcels he stopped working to get in 2010. This is a raw offer and a sell-out!!
The lands sculpted for the deceptive center job have big deposits of clinker, bauxite, lintel, oil, gas, gold et cetera. In the spurious Petroleum Hub Plan, these abundant locations are to be scheduled for future advancement.
Government of Ghana, we are informed, urgently requires 20,000 acres of land however about 13000 acres of the urgently required lands consisting of farmlands will be scheduled for future advancement. One can fairly presume that the lands for future advancement will consist of the NAWULEY LIME DEPOSITS, which Awulae Annor Adjaye III stopped working to get in 2010.
As the Paramount Chief of Western Nzema, Awulae might hold the land in trust for individuals. It, nevertheless, does not indicate that individuals have actually surrendered their right to defend, and work out on their own. Awulae’s stated position that “the land comes from his stool” which “just the crops on the land come from the households” is most regrettable and misleading.
A land trust, (if one exists), is a binding trust contract in between a homeowner and a trustee that licenses the trustee to hold the property with or without moving the title and control of the property. Therefore, the STATE should be directed, and act in a way that might not welcome lawsuits in the negotiations, otherwise the said job would suffer a severe opposition if the impacted neighborhoods and their households increase.
In view of the discoveries that have actually emerged concerning the promoters, spotted in a December 2019 Joint Venture filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (United States SEC)[1], and another expose that concerns the reliability of the promoters and funders of the Petroleum Hub[2], the matter must, as a matter of severe seriousness, be given the attention of the proper authorities for examination and action. Parliament, the Office of the Attorney-General and the Special Prosecutor need to be brought into the image. The National House of Chiefs might have an interest in this matter, which seriously impacts the self-respect and sanctity of the spiritual organization of chieftaincy.
It need to be re-emphasized that individuals of Nzema are not opposed to an unblemished Petroleum Hub developed in assessment with the chiefs and allodial owners of the land that acknowledges and sufficiently compensates landowners and Nzema Maanle, in addition to consents to particular needs as replicated listed below:
a. Our analysis of files by LUSPA[3] and the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation suggest that the whole job can be done on not more than 7,000 acres of land. As such, the remainder of the 13,000 acres ought to be gotten rid of from the land allocated for the Hub as it provides the impression that this is simply an effort at land getting by incorrect pretenses. Any effort to state this extra land as a Free Zone Area and out of the reach of the genuine landowners will be thought about an abuse of their right to own property, an essential right under Ghana’s constitution, and will be increasingly withstood.
b. There ought to be openness concerning who the personal financiers are, what they give the table and clear delineation of obligations in between the state and the personal financiers and how these are picked.
c. Residential locations ought to belong to the surrounding towns to incorporate the people however not to develop Reserves or Homelands which will run out reach of the occupants. In other words, an apartheid system within Nzema West Traditional Area, aka Jomoro.
d. Amenities like academic centers, health care, waste management, real estate and other facilities ought to be incorporated into the surrounding towns. Special schools cannot be produced for employees of the Hub while the towns look and remain poor.
e. There ought to be reasonable and fair payment (eg Equity interest) for the land that makes sure generational advantage for landowners, the stools and for Nzema Maanle.
f. There ought to depend on 35% minimum work quota for the indigenes to name a few, and a reasonable representation on the Senior Executive Team so that native concerns can be thought about at the greatest level where secret choices are made.
g. There ought to be sufficient safeguards to make sure that the fragile eco-friendly balance of the location (around the Sea, Domunli, Amanzule and Tano) is preserved.
h. There ought to be sufficient safeguards for the susceptible and omitted as recorded in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Petroleum Hub.
As Concerned people of Nzema, a few of whom are straight impacted by this job, we will not be reluctant to take the Government of Ghana, Awulae Annor Adjaye III, the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation and any other associated bodies to job if these abnormalities are not remedied instantly to make sure a transparent, fair and reasonable procedure for all worried.
Signed: Nzema Petroleum Hub Committee of Concerned Citizens of Nzema Descent
Proposed Land Area to be taken control of by Government as Free Zone location for the Proposed Petroleum Hub. 20,000 acres. Source LUSPA
Area covered by Phase 1.
Essential elements of the Hub, almost all of which are recorded in the Phase 1 land use above.
1. 3 Refineries;
2. 5 Petrochemical plants;
3. LPG facilities
4. Storage Tanks [3+ 4+ 3 million m3]
Excerpts from the Pet Hub Local Plan Phase One. May 2021.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1389034/000172171619000074/exh10-25.htm
[2] https://allafrica.com/stories/202103220116.html
[3] Petroleum Hub Local_Plan, May 2021
