Akyem Asene farmers demand compensation as Accra-Kumasi expressway cuts through farms
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More than 200 farmers at Akyem Asene near Oda say their cocoa, food crop and oil palm farms were destroyed eight months ago for the Accra-Kumasi expressway without compensation, and that some destroyed farms have still not been measured.
More than 200 farmers at Akyem Asene near Oda whose property was destroyed for the new Accra-Kumasi expressway have appealed to the government to pay adequate compensation, saying they have waited eight months since their farms were cleared.
The destroyed property included cocoa and food crop farms as well as oil palm plantations. Affected farmers wearing red bands demonstrated through principal streets of Asene before converging on the durbar ground to address the media.
Leaders of the victims, Kofi Koranteng Sarpong, Yaw Peprah, Da Costa Asamoah and Yaw Ampomah Asiedu, said they could no longer meet basic needs or pay tertiary fees for their children. Asamoah said his eight-acre cocoa farm, which earned him about GH¢40,000 a year, was destroyed in February 2026.
Koranteng Sarpong said surveyors on the project had not measured the destroyed farms of more than 20 farmers, including his own, to determine the extent of the damage, let alone the compensation due.
Samuel Tieku, who heads the Ghana Highway Authority survey team for the road, confirmed that some destroyed farms had not been measured, explaining that the expressway's width was widened from 120 metres to 150 metres, affecting more farmers. He urged restraint while the concerns are referred to the appropriate quarters. The Benkumhene of Asene, Nana Ntiamoah Nyarko, backed the call for payment, saying compensation should have preceded the destruction of the farms.