They said the sand winners had destroyed over 400 acres of their farms, a situation which had made them financially poor and could not look after their families.  They made the appeal at a news conference addressed by Nana Saakwa Atinka II, the Tufuhene and also a farmer of Kwesitwikrom, in the Central Region.

He said they have become helpless and needed the intervention of government to rescue them from the hands of the illegal sand winners. Nana Atinka said the unscrupulous sand winners operate in the dark between 2200 hours and 0400 hours, “a situation we could not cope with and needed urgent assistance from the government”.

“We are seriously under siege, and going through pains because of the behaviour of the sand winners,” he said.  Nana Atinka said the sand winners had snubbed the stop orders of the Police and the Agona East District Assembly and continue to destroy the farmlands.

The Tufuhene said the sand winners claimed that the land had been given to them by two members of Agona Yogo Family from Agona Asafo in the Agona East District of the Central Region.

Nana Atinka said their investigations with the Agona Yogo Family revealed that the two persons, whose names have been withheld for security reasons, have no locus to lease the land out.

Mr Albert Quainoo, Assemblyman for Agona Fawomanye Electoral Area, said the suffering the farmers were going through was needless and that the sand winners must be made to face the law.

He said the farmers have embraced President Akufo-Addo’s government policy of planting for food and jobs and have aimed at increasing food production to reduce poverty.