Around 500 enraged youths and police officers engaged in violent altercations in Asikasu, in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern Region, over the alleged indiscriminate selling of 600 acres of farmland for estate development and sand-winning.
Five persons, including police officers, were shot as a result of this.
In Akyem Asikasu, hundreds of young people and peasant farmers demonstrated against their leader, Barima Konadu Yiadom.
They said he had sold almost 600 acres of farmland for sand-winning companies, real estate developers, and other people without paying them.
The teenagers in Asamankese, the bulk of whom were reportedly brandishing machetes, clashed with the police as they tried to keep calm.
According to some of the angry young people who spoke with Adom News, the chief has sold plantations that grow cocoa, pawpaw, oranges, cassava, and plantains without first addressing the landowners, who are primarily small-scale farmers.
They pleaded with the authorities to step in and stop any chaos.
However, Asikasu chief Barima Agyei Konadu Yiadom has clarified that he has only given firms access to a portion of the land to provide work for young people.
He claimed that since all of the land in Akyem Abuakwa is part of the Okyeman stool property, no one can claim possession of it.
