Divisional Chief of Wassa Sompre in Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area, Nana Sasraku Gyimah II has debunked rumours that Genser Energy Ghana Limited (‘GEGL’), is snatching their lands.
According to the chief, Genser Energy has done its due diligence and consulted the Wassa Traditional Area before acquiring lands from locals to lay their gas pipelines.
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“Genser Energy has worked hard and have made sure they secured lands through the right process. They have paid every farmer what they deserve. They met the chiefs of the Wassa Traditional Area and reached an agreement with us. They are not stealing any lands from us. Our communities are now better because of Genser Energy,” he stated.
Nana Sasraku Gyimah II added that apart from meeting the chiefs, Genser Energy also engaged the Amenfi Central Assembly and acquired the necessary permits to undertake their project.
“No farmers were sacked off their lands and told to go and die in poverty. The paramount chief made sure every farmer got a good deal.
We had evaluators who enumerated the lands and paid the landowners their due. We never cheated any farmer out of their lands,” he explained.
Speaking to Happy98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, Nana Sasraku Gyimah II shared that Genser Energy has brought development and job opportunities to its people as opposed to claims of them stealing cocoa lands of locals.
“We have prayed for such a development for long and now that the town is developing, we can’t let just a few disgrunted persons come and paint Genser Energy black on radio. Genser has not stolen any lands from us.
Our youth used to travel to Accra and Takoradi in search of greener pastures but that has now changed. Genser has created jobs for our youth,” he reiterated.
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Background
Some Cocoa Cooperative Unions in Sefwi Bekwai accused Genser Energy Ghana Limited (‘GEGL’) of trying to forcefully push them out of their lands without any consultations and negotiations.
According to the farmers, “Genser wants to snatch some 24,000 acres of lands belonging to farmers in Sefwi Bekwai just so they can lay their gas pipelines but, the company has not even had the decency to consult the union. They have not met farmers for a negotiation but have counted the trees on our farms and valued them. Close to 800 farmers in my union will be affected by this if they achieve their objective.”
They claimed the company has the support of the Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area and chiefs had threatened to give away lands of any locals who refused to sell the parcels to Genser Energy.
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Genser Energy Ghana Limited provides distributed power generation solutions in Ghana to multinational industrial and mining companies including Gold Fields Ghana, Kinross Gold Corporation and more recently Perseus Mining.
The company intends to build over 170km of natural gas pipelines connecting its existing plants with the Ghana National Gas Corporation’s facilities, increase the total capacity of its existing plants from 100MW to 190MW and invest in new 161kV transmission lines and seeks out these lands for their expansion project.
