Nine persons, including former Asokore Mampong Municipal Chief Executive Alidu Seidu, remain in police custody after failing to meet bail conditions set by the High Court in Kumasi in the land fraud case involving public property at Buobai in the Asokore Mampong Municipality.
The court granted each accused bail in the sum of GH¢800,000 with three sureties to be justified with landed property. However, all nine have not been able to satisfy the conditions and are still in custody.
They are facing 12 charges, including conspiracy to falsify land records, falsification of land records, fraudulent breach of trust, abetment of crime, conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful occupation of public land, and possession of forged documents.
The prosecution alleges that the accused conspired to unlawfully sell a 10.54-acre portion of a 19.06-acre parcel of land acquired in 1999 by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly for public purposes. The land was originally designated for a septage disposal and treatment facility following the closure of the Kumasi landfill site at Ahenema Kokoben.
After the project was suspended due to opposition from sections of the Buobai community, parts of the land were allegedly re-demarcated and sold. In 2014, a committee established by the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly recommended that nine acres be reallocated to affected occupants on humanitarian grounds. The remaining 10.06 acres were reserved for public use, specifically for a hospital, under a revised local plan dated December 2014 and deposited with the Lands Commission.
Investigations indicate that between June 2020 and January 2021, the land use was allegedly changed from hospital to residential without lawful authority. Prosecutors contend that following the revision, 34 plots within the area reserved for the hospital were allocated to five businessmen, some of which were occupied and others sold.
One of the accused reportedly presented a letter dated September 20, 2000, claiming the land had been reverted to the stool. However, checks at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly indicated the letter was not genuine.
Two other suspects — the Kenyasehene and the Odikro of Buobai — failed to appear before the court, and bench warrants have been issued for their arrest.
The complainant in the case is the current Municipal Chief Executive, Ben Abdallah Alhassan. The case has been adjourned to March 12, 2026.
