Dressed in red and wearing arm bands, residents of Amrahia Dairy Farms marched to Ghana’s police Criminal Investigations Department, then on to the Presidency, with a petition in hand. Their placards were blunt. “We need President’s probe into illegal demolition,” one read. Another said “Demolition without court order.”
The protesters say excavators flattened homes and other structures in their community on March 18, 2026. They put the blame on a company called Global Delivery Services, which they say arrived with armed police officers and was led by Ben Seyram Attiaka and Clemence Gjato. No court order authorised any of it, the residents say.
Prosper Joemens Rhormiller, who chairs the Amrahia Dairy Farms Property and Land Owners Association, led the demonstration. He told JoyNews outside the Information Services Department on Tuesday, September 8, that the crews turned up while families were at home.
“We’re here today because we were in our homes, our community, and a group of young men came with excavators and then with police escort, with guns, ammunition, M16, AK-47, and all that,” he said. He added that the group came “to demolish properties that we have acquired, millions of these, demolish everything.”
How the land changed hands
The government acquired a tract of about 1.9 miles in 1970 for a dairy farm project. According to Rhormiller, 40 per cent of it was later released to the owners who held it before the acquisition. He said the state realised in November 2020 that those owners had never been compensated, which led to talks between the affected families and Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, then the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.
The released portion was meant to be divided among the families with the Lands Commission, according to each family’s grant. Association members say they bought from the Amrahia family, one of the original owners, and hold indentures as proof.
The competing claims
A notice dated March 12, 2026, from Global Delivery Limited said the company held a Power of Attorney from the grandson of the late Solomon Robert Oddamtten. The grandson, it said, claimed ownership of the land and had asked the company to manage and regularise matters tied to it, the association says.
The company later claimed the Lands Commission had ordered the demolition. Petitioners reject that. In their view the Commission manages state lands and has no mandate to authorise teardowns.
They also point to paperwork obtained from the Commission that, they allege, does not add up. It reportedly targeted people whose grants trace to Oyarifa, not Amrahia, and it named Anyok Holdings rather than Global Delivery Limited.
What residents want
Rhormiller said the owners had reported the matter to several police bodies. “We have made an effort to engage the law by reporting to various police institutions, and we have not seen anything,” he said. The petition to the President was the next step: “So we are here to submit to him that this is what is happening through a petition.”
Rhormiller, who is also founder and head pastor of Heaven Investment Chapel International, called the demolitions a violation of residents’ fundamental human rights. The protesters want an investigation, enforcement of the law and compensation for the property destroyed.
Dr. Samuel Ayeh, a Presidential Aide, accepted the petition on President John Mahama’s behalf. He praised the residents for showing commitment to the rule of law and called the alleged treatment of them reprehensible. Even if the people behind the demolitions claimed authority over the land, he said, that did not entitle them to intimidate, harass or assault residents. He promised the petition would go to the appropriate authorities for swift action.
Sources
- Amrahia Dairy Farms Landowners Petition Mahama Over Demolitions
- Amrahia Dairy Farms property owners petition Mahama over alleged demolition of properties – MyJoyOnline
