Accra, March 3, GNA-An elderly woman with mobility challenges has made an emotional appeal to President John Dramani Mahama, begging him to uphold the rule of law and restore justice in a protracted land dispute that has left her family exhausted, distressed and fearful.
Ms. Juliana Lokko, acting under Power of Attorney for her brother, Dr. Daniel Lokko, and his wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Doretta Lokko, says she writes “with a heavy yet hopeful heart” after years of what she describes as unrelenting encroachment on their family land at Dzornaman in Accra.
In identical petitions addressed to the President and Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the frail grandmother asked for one thing that a lawful court order be respected.
According to documents attached to the petitions, the Lokko family had held a valid Land Title Certificate for over twenty years.
Since acquiring the property around 2002, they fenced it, installed a gate, and maintained a caretaker.
For nearly two decades, they say, they lived in peaceful possession, but in 2022, that peace was shattered.
The family explained that unknown persons entered the land, claiming to be executing a judgment from a separate case relating to land at Okpoi Gonno — land the Lokkos insist is entirely different from their property at Dzornaman.
Alarmed, they turned to the High Court in Accra. On November 14, 2022, the court granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the alleged trespassers, their agents, assigns and anyone claiming through them from entering or developing the land pending final determination of the case.
That order, they stressed, remained valid and in force.
Yet, according to the petitions, construction had continued.
“We Have Knocked on Every Door”
In her moving letter, Ms. Lokko recounted the family’s efforts to seek help through official channels.
They petitioned the Ghana Police Service, writing to the East Legon Police Station, the Greater Accra Regional Command, CID Headquarters and successive Inspectors-General of Police. They also petitioned National Security on multiple occasions.
“Despite these efforts, we have received no meaningful relief,” she wrote.
According her letter, her pain was emanating from allegations that some persons identifying themselves as National Security operatives have intervened on the land — even after being shown the subsisting court injunction.
The family’s separate urgent petition raised concerns about the reported involvement of some National security operatives.
They alleged that operatives were deployed to the site, their representatives were forcibly removed, and construction resumed despite assurances that activities would cease.
These claims remain allegations, but the family insists they have attached court orders, land title certificates, Lands Commission search results and copies of prior petitions to support their case.
“At this stage of my life,” Ms. Lokko wrote, “I never imagined I would be pleading for the enforcement of a lawful court order in my own country.”
She speaks of financial strain from prolonged litigation and described the emotional toll of watching her family’s property land they lawfully acquired and registered — being developed amid an unresolved court case.
She acknowledged her own physical limitations and the burden of moving from office to office seeking intervention.
She appealed to President Mahama not only as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, but “as a father who understands the anguish of seeing his family endure injustice.”
To Vice President Opoku-Agyemang, she writes “as a mother who understands the pain of seeing her family suffer.”
The petitions warned that continued disregard for the court’s injunction risked heightening tensions on the ground.
“There are fears that structures allegedly being erected could be sold to unsuspecting third parties, potentially dragging innocent buyers into a legal quagmire.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba