Ada clan, groups resist Electrochem from harvesting salt in sacred area

The Terkperbia We (clan), one of the landlords of the Ada Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region, has stopped Electrochem from harvesting salt in their Yomo sacred ground (grand deity) at Midie.

Led by Nomo Amate Apedo Ayornu, the Libi Wornor (Salt Priest of the Ada Traditional Area), Nomo Tetteh Ablerdu Ayornu, the Terkperbia We Stool Father, Asafoatsengua Glorgo Dadebom V, the Chief Warlord of the Terkperbia We, with scores of the youth and two pressure groups -Ada Songor Lagoon Association (ASLA) and Dangme East Salt Producers Association (DESPA) – stormed the Yomo sacred ground to stop two brand new earth-moving machines, the properties of Electrochem Ghana Limited, a private salt mining company, from working.

Not intimidated by armed police personnel who arrived in two pick-ups to provide security to the workers of Electrochem in Yomo, the resistance of the agitators compelled the police to instruct the operators of the two earth-moving machines to desert the area with their equipment.

Though the aggrieved members of the clan admitted that the Government of Ghana had granted a lease and salt mining licence in the Songor Lagoon to Electrochem Ghana Limited for a period, they argued that the said lease has gone far beyond the boundaries of the Songor Lagoon by over ten thousand acres to include their bare lands, villages, ancestral cemeteries, schools and now their sacred shrines.

At the site where the indigenes mounted their fierce protest and strong resistance last Friday, the Libi Wornor said, “Electrochem has bitten more than it can chew by moving machines into our sacred grand deity, Yomo, and its shrine, which forms part of the Lagoon.

“At all material times, the Yomo is considered a Reserve area where any breach on its preservation amounts to the soul and spiritual backbone of the Terkperbia We. Moving into the Yomo is like touching our soul and breaking our backbone and this is unheard of, Electrochem!

“Electrochem can use the police, thugs and persons dressed in military uniforms to intimidate and brutalise us, but the Terkperbia We (clan) wants the Investor to know that there comes a day…either this generation or the one after this one, who will teach somebody a bitter lesson.”

The aggrieved indigenes acknowledged the recommendations by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy and Forestry, which recently sat on the rising tension in the Songor Lagoon area.

However, “we hold the view that it would not holistically solve the chaotic situation on the ground unless the objectives of the PNDC Law 287, which envisages the development of a salt industry in Ada, with the participation of both small-and large-scale salt producers, is followed to the letter.

“We are not against the industrial commercialisation of salt mining in the Songor Lagoon, but it must be done, having due regard to proprietary ownership in land and acknowledgement and preservation of customs and traditions that have held the heart and soul of the Terkperbia We,” Asafoatsengua Glorgo Dadebom V, the Chief Warlord of the clan said.

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