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The Site Manager of the Lashibi Ramsar site under the Forestry Commission, Thomas Acquah, has strongly refuted claims that he is collecting money from property developers to allow construction on the flood-prone wetland area.
In an interview with the media, the Site Manager clarified that his role on the site is purely operational and rooted in enforcement duties, not the allocation of land or approval of construction activities.
He recounted a specific incident in October when his team, lacking heavy machinery, had to manually demolish unauthorized structures within the waterway. During the operation, a woman, one of the property owners who had accused him of extorting money to allow construction on the site attacked his team.
He further alleged that the woman later pursued the task force vehicle in a tinted pickup truck, raising suspicions of a possible armed threat.
“What I will say is that, per my operational work that I do, I come here with task force, because when normally I come alone, I’m always faced with a lot of confrontations on the ground, so I usually call on my task force, the Forestry Commission Rapid Response Team, and I move with them.
“Sometime within October, I was here with my task force. We didn’t have any machine to even demolish some of the structures that are in the waterway. So we manually pushed some walls down belonging to the same woman who is making the allegations. She came there, reigned insults on me and even series of curses and all that. I didn’t mind her.
“At the time when we were pulling the things down manually, she told us that if we will still continue and break these things down, we should wait and we’ll see. So when we were moving out of the site, then she came in with a ram pickup chasing the task force. We were then using a Nissan patrol van, and she was chasing us and we suspected that she was carrying arms and all that and the car was tinted so we had to quickly leave the site it was when we reached the MF Estates exiting the area before she stopped chasing us and since that time we have never been to the site even though it falls within the waterway.” He disclosed.
Thomas Acquah refuted the bribery allegations in no uncertain terms. He also suggested that the allegations may be a targeted attempt to remove him from his position due to the critical role he plays in enforcement on the ground.
“Who am I to assure them to build? And on what grounds will I collect money from somebody when I know what you are doing is wrong? I haven’t taken any money from anybody. I haven’t taken any dime from anybody. I cannot embolden anybody to build here when I know it is wrong.
“They are targeting the head, because we say in our local parlance that if fish will spoil, it will start from the head. What not the chiefs who are selling the lands to them?Why don’t they go to them and attack them? I am a public servant. Why would they attack me? Because they know that per the information I have on the grounds, I’m the only person if they target me, they’ll be able to have their way.” He said.
The site manager called for the issue to be treated with the seriousness it deserves, emphasizing the need to shift focus from baseless accusations to addressing the broader issue of encroachment on protected wetlands.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.net
