A worker at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has shot and killed the leader of a suspected land guard gang at Green Stone near Afienya in the Greater Accra Region.
This was when the gang engaged the TOR worker in a shootout at about 7 pm Wednesday, May 13, this year.
Just when the TOR worker, Thomas Oppong, a Technician Mechanic, and his family had finished preparing fufu (a local dish) for their dinner, sources said the suspected landguards, numbering about 20, stormed the residence of Thomas Oppong, which is about 100 meters away from the Afienya-Kpong main road of the Eastern Corridor.
Except two who were spotted in a car, the rest were riding motorbikes.
The sources said before they knew it, the land guards were beating Thomas Oppong.
As he managed to escape, they opened fire but he fled.
The sources told energynewsafrica.com that Thomas had a registered pump action gun and managing to grab it, returned fire at the assailants, killing the gang leader.
The rest, seeing their ‘Goliath’ fall, fled the scene.
Thomas, the sources narrated, managed to vacate his residence with his family and later reported himself to the Afienya District Police, who had already heard of the incident and, so, detained him.
When the Afienya police, led by the Commander, Supt Nana Ofori, visited the crime scene, the fufu which Thomas and the family had prepared for their dinner had blood spills on it.
The police retrieved some items including empty cartridges.
The sources indicated that besides Thomas being a technician at TOR, he is a hunter.
Sources within the Afienya police told energynewsafrica.com that management of TOR delegated some staff, led by the Head of the Security, visited Thomas who is currently in the police custody.
When energynewsafrica.com’s team visited the scene Thursday morning, there was not a single person spotted.
There were a couple of gunshot holes on the wall of Thomas’ residence with his gate smashed.
Investigations conducted by energynewsafrica.com indicate that Thomas took a loan and bought about four plots of land some years ago.
He, then, put up two rooms and moved in to settle.
Later, someone started developing part of the property of Thomas and later hired the criminal services of land guards to be harassing Thomas.
Energynewsafrica.com’s investigation further revealed that Thomas, who became troubled over the development, took the issue to a law court only to realise that the owner of a popular roofing sheet company in Accra, capital of Ghana, was the one developing the land.
The court, according to sources, placed an injunction on further development of the land but the developer (name withheld) got land guard to harass him the plaintiff.
According to a family, source Thomas had reported the issue of harassment to the Afienya Police severally but little was done to ensure that peace prevailed.
An elder of the family, who spoke to energynewsafrica.com when the reporter visited the area, said Thomas had stayed on the land for some years with his family.
The elder, who sought anonymity, narrated that land guards had been harassing legal property owners in the area for far too long.
He, therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to check the conducts of his security personnel at the district.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com