Questions over the legality of sand-winning activities at Tsumkpo in the Shai Osudoku District have intensified following conflicting accounts about permits issued to operators working in an area where more than 50 acres of farmland have reportedly been destroyed.
Farmers in the community say sand-winning activities have destroyed crops including maize, groundnuts, pepper and cassava, while leaving deep excavations close to farms and residential areas.
The development has raised concerns about regulatory enforcement and the process through which operators gained access to the affected lands.
Assembly Member for the area, Mr Israel Kweku Animle, said he visited some of the affected farms after receiving complaints from residents.
According to him, some of the operators were brought before the Shai Osudoku District Assembly, where their permits were inspected.
He said the examination showed that although the operators possessed permits for sand-winning, the documents covered a different location and had expired.
Mr Animle said the Assembly subsequently sanctioned the operators and issued another permit, while he also engaged residents at Tokpo over the matter.
He said the operators had claimed that competing groups were laying ownership claims to the land and that their activities were partly intended to establish their rights to the disputed area.
The Assembly Member expressed concern about the destruction of farmland and its consequences for residents whose livelihoods depend largely on agriculture.
However, District Chief Executive for Shai Osudoku, Mr Ignatius Godfred Dordoe, gave a different account of the Assembly’s involvement.
He told the Ghana News Agency that the District Assembly had not authorised any company or individual to undertake sand-winning activities in the affected area.
Mr Dordoe said a Chinese company that initially entered the area was stopped from operating.
He added that another operator, identified as Ali Ali, subsequently approached the Assembly for permission but was directed to obtain the necessary permit from the Minerals Commission.
“We denied them. We asked them to go for the permit from the Minerals Commission first, but they never came back,” he said.
The conflicting accounts have raised questions about how the operators gained access to the land and whether the required permits and approvals were in place when the sand-winning activities began.
Meanwhile, affected farmers say they are bearing the cost of the dispute, with cultivated fields destroyed before crops could be harvested.
A 92-year-old farmer, Mr Samuel Kateinor, who said he had farmed and reared animals in the area for decades, described the scale of the destruction as unprecedented in his experience.
“We farm here and also rear animals. We’ve been here for ages, but the people in Tokpo have given out the land to these companies without our knowledge,” he said.
Mr Godwin Adjaotor, a pastor and farmer, said portions of his three-acre farm were destroyed before he could complete harvesting.
“They destroyed parts of the farm. They used an excavator to destroy my farm. They came in the night to destroy it, and we are starving now,” he said.
Another farmer, Mr Tetteh Doku, appealed for urgent intervention as anxiety grows among residents over the continued operations.
Farmers and residents are calling for authorities to investigate the conflicting claims over land ownership and permits and establish the legal basis for the sand-winning activities.
They also want the authorities to halt any further destruction until the ownership and regulatory issues are resolved.
Residents warn that continued sand-winning could permanently degrade agricultural land, undermine food production and deprive families in the predominantly farming community of their main source of income.
They have consequently called for stricter enforcement of land-use and sand-winning regulations to prevent further damage and protect farmland from uncontrolled excavation.
