15/10/2010 (Modern Ghana) - The Tema Traditional Council (TTC) has indicated that it is not in support of the proposed oil palm project to be established by Wilmer Africa Limited on a piece of land in Tema.

This was disclosed by a member of the Council, Nii Armah Somponu, aka, Nii Shiipi, at a meeting held by the Tema Youth Association to address the general public on developments concerning the recent mayhem in Tema Manhean.

According to him, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, first President of the Republic, in his bid to make Tema an industrial hub, sacked the indigenes of Tema from their lands, and sold them to investors.

They were then asked to occupy the disputed land, and use it for their fishing activities, since that was the main occupation of the people, and for the past 52 years, they had been obtaining their livelihood on this piece of land.

He however, indicated that gradually, they were being sent away from their area of occupation to allow for this palm oil project, which, according to him, threatens to bring an end to activities that generate income for the people. 'It wouldn't be long, they would even eject us out of the land completely,' he warned.

Nii Shiipi said that they, the indigenes of Tema, would petition the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make available documents covering government lands in Tema, so that proper demarcations of the land would be done, in order to curtail investors from taking lands that had not been given to them by the government or the Traditional Council.

Cephas Agyei Mensah, President of the Tema Youth Association, noted that the mayhem by the fisher folks and others on September 17, 2010, was an attempt on their part to protect the land on which they had worked for the past 52 years.

'The angry mob was of the view that the Traditional Council had connived with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to sell that parcel of land to the investor,' he stated.

Responding to questions from the teeming youth of the area, Nii Shiipi assured them that the Traditional Council would not sit down unconcerned, while land bequeathed to them by their forefathers are taken away for no just cause.

While he sympathised with the citizens of the area who were languishing in police custody, he entreated the youth to live with harmony and oneness, so that together, they could fight for the common goal of reclaiming their land.

Present at the forum were Nii Agyei Kraku II, Tema Mantse, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema East constituency, Mr. Evans Ashong Narh, the Secretary of the 17-member committee set up to educate the community on the proposed project, Richster Nii Armah Amarfio, and a representative from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Enoch Agyei Mensah.

The proposed Wilmer Africa Limited project sparked rioting at the Tema Fishing Harbour, which resulted in damage to properties running into thousands of Ghana cedis.