A feud between the residents of Sege in the Greater Accra Region and Electrochem Ghana Limited, a salt company, has resulted in the shooting to death of one person.
The renewed clash between the two parties on Monday, November 6, 2023, also injured others.
It allegedly started after some land guards employed to protect the Electrochem concession on the Songhor Lagoon from unauthorized persons attacked some individuals from Toflokpo, a nearby village.
Residents of the area have been objecting to the activities of the salt mining company in the lagoon, insisting it is their source of livelihood and, thus, cannot vacate the concession.
According to Nene Mayilo Dadebom II, chief of Toflokpo, the company is trying to deny them access to mine in the Songhor Lagoon, which has been their main source of livelihood for years.
He alleged that Electrochem has employed the land guards to terrorize residents for some time now.
“We are not opposed to development, but we will not be prevented from continuing what we have been doing for years,” he said.
Meanwhile, the operations manager of the company, Nene Odeopeor Siada III, has denied that security officers were behind the shooting of the deceased.
“We were on the field when all of a sudden, we heard noises which were from a lot of crowd from the town. We made sure that we protected our equipment and personnel. The people started throwing stones at us.
“I heard Nene saying the police were shooting, but before man and God, there was no shooting. We were trying to protect our concession, and we have made announcements that they should move from that place. No one went there to shoot because our security guys don’t even use guns. We never shot a gun, not even a warning shot,” he insisted.