Ghana's peace council steps into Tema-Nungua land dispute over Meridian Rock
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The Greater Accra Regional Peace Council has told chiefs and social media users in Tema and Nungua to avoid inflaming a land dispute that has already forced a university to postpone a heritage festival.
The Greater Accra Regional Peace Council has asked chiefs and social media users in Tema and Nungua not to inflame a dispute between the two traditional areas over land and the Meridian Rock, warning that growing online exchanges between young people from the two communities could threaten peace and security in the region.
In a statement dated Wednesday, 4 November, the council urged traditional leaders and social media actors to avoid "creating any platforms that may escalate tensions in both traditional areas", and called on both sides to sit at the dialogue table and discuss their concerns with mutual understanding and respect.
The dispute has already disrupted a public event. Accra Metropolitan University postponed its Dzenten Festival, planned for Sunday, 1 November, citing security concerns; in an earlier statement the university said it would hold off until the concerns had been addressed and would announce a new date.
At the centre of the disagreement is land around Tema's old harbour area. Tema lies on the Greenwich Meridian, and a rock in the sea off Halcrow Beach is known as the Meridian Rock. In 1952, about 63 square miles of land were acquired from the traditional authorities of Tema, Nungua and Kpone for the port and township, according to a Ghana News Agency history of Tema citing TDC Ghana Limited, and residents of the original settlement were moved to Tema Manhean, also called Tema New Town, to make way for the development.
In January, youth in Tema pulled down walls going up at the former Meridian Hotel site for the third time, objecting to the alleged sale of the land to a private developer and demanding that it be returned to the stool, which they describe as their ancestral home. Nungua's traditional leaders argue that Nungua was the first community to settle in the area, with the Nungua Traditional Council saying in a December 2025 statement on a separate Ga chieftaincy matter that Nungua had controlled land later settled by other Ga towns.