By Winifred Lartey
Copyright asaaseradio
Original Embossment Company Ltd, one of the leaseholders of land at the CMB Abuja Market in Accra, has rejected claims that private developers are unlawfully taking over the site, insisting the land belongs to the state and has been legally leased.
The company’s statement follows a protest earlier this week by traders and transport operators, who accused developers of attempting to displace them. Demonstrators petitioned the presidency, framing the dispute as one of the “rich oppressing the poor.”
But Original Embossment, in a press release Friday, said the land in question is owned by the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA) under the Ministry of Transport, and has been leased to multiple entities including Ghana Cocoa Board, the National Investment Bank, and the GPRTU. The company said the record is captured in the Parliamentary Hansard of 1 July 2021.
“It is therefore surprising that in her interview on 18th August 2025, Zenator Rawlings suggested that the land had been leased to a single company for residences. This assertion is inaccurate and misleading,” the statement said.
The company stressed that it holds a valid 50-year lease signed in 2008, endorsed by the Lands Commission, GRDA, and other regulatory bodies.
It added that the current dispute began when traders themselves reported the matter to the police after development works started. While Original Embossment presented its documents to the police, the traders “failed to provide any documents and subsequently abandoned the process,” the company alleged.
Original Embossment also claimed it had extended an olive branch by offering to build modern shops for traders once construction was completed, but said this gesture had been twisted to create a “false narrative” against it.
“The simple truth is that the land belongs to the State through the GRDA. The traders were only temporary occupants who once paid ground rent until that arrangement was discontinued in 2017,” the statement read.
The company urged the media and public to avoid sensationalism, describing the situation as a matter of “lawful ownership versus unlawful encroachment.”
“This is not a struggle between the rich and the poor… Ghana cannot build a just and orderly society if due process is replaced with mob action, misinformation, and emotional blackmail,” the release concluded.
