Kasoa protests 'bad name'

Some residents of Kasoa in the Central region say they are tired of their community being associated with all manner of ills, even when the incidents have occurred in adjoining or distant communities.

All they want is a stop to the practice and crimes traced to their actual locations rather than being lumped up with Kasoa, a practice denying them of good business.

Kasoa, capital of the highly densely populated Awutu Senya East Municipality is noted for its vibrant foodstuff market, and lies just on the outskirt of Accra West.

It is often mistaken to be part of the national capital, geographically, when in fact, it is part of the Central region.

Like many big communities around the country, it experiences an unfair share of many of the crimes that plaque our daily lives– land disputes, ritual murders, armed robberies and petty crimes.

Apart from political rallies and campaigns for the thousands of votes likely to inure to either of Ghana’s two largest political parties, the mention of Kasoa in the media is likely to be for the commission of any of the crimes.

Or at least something negative.

The shooting incident at Millennium City, the latest incident wrongly sourced to Kasoa that has got its residents protesting.

But the group of concerned residents, led by Aya Balley, a former assemblyman for Adam Nana Electoral area, and Akwasi Addo, a resident and media practitioner, says they have had enough of the media and officialdom’s ‘deliberate’ linking of Kasoa to all crimes instead of tracing the crimes to their true locations.

Read also: GAF condemns ‘unprovoked’ fatal shooting of soldier in Kasoa land dispute

They cite Monday afternoon’s shooting to death of a soldier in a dispute over land as a case in point.

The incident happened at Millennium City which is in the Gomoa East District.

All media reports, and official communication on the matter (by the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces), cite Kasoa as the location of the crime.

“We are extremely unhappy with the seeming deliberate effort to attribute any wrongdoing to Kasoa by recognized media outfits and state institutions,” says a statement they issued on May Day.

“(More) often than not the name Kasoa has been mentioned in publications regarding criminal and other bad happenings even when those cases did not happen within the Kasoa municipality.

“We have become more alarmed as the police in a statement issued on the shooting of a military personnel expressly mentioned the location to be Kasoa even though the incident happened right at the District Police Command in Millennium City which categorically falls under Gomoa East District.

“We are disturbed that a state security agency like the police could not define the jurisdiction accurately.

It must be noted that the Millennium City where the shooting took place is natively known as Gomoa Bantama and falls directly under Gomoa Fetteh in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region while Kasoa falls within the Awutu Senya East Municipality.

“In a similar incident an alleged missing manhood case which happened at Nyanyano Kakraba also in the Gomoa East was widely reported as happening in Kasoa.

“As residents, we do not find it tasteful the bad name tag being associated with Kasoa as it is blocking our business potentials.

“We are therefore entreating all Ghanaians particularly media organizations and state agencies to do due diligence and avoid mentioning Kasoa other than the specific locations where crimes are perpetrated.

“However, we commend the police for acting swiftly to arrest the perpetrator of this dastardly murder and urge the outfit to investigate further to arrest other accomplices if any, and to also work more efficiently to curb these violent land disputes which have become a menace.