The  two religious groups contesting ownership of some plots of land at Avenor in Accra have agreed to dialogue for peace.

In separate interviews with spokespersons of the two religious groups, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Ghana and the Word Miracle Church International (WMCI), they agreed that it was possible that they only shared a common boundary on the parcel of land which, for the past weeks, had been a scene of tension.

On November 16, 2009, a land dispute between the WMCI and some squatters at Avenor exploded into an exchange of gunfire that claimed two lives and left three others seriously injured.

The mission’s claim to 1.59 acres of the land dates as far back as December 1985 when the plot was sold to it by the late Numo Ayitey Cobblah (Korle Priest) and others, while the WMCI also lays claim to 3.45 acres which was also sold to it by one Kofi Afriyie in 2004 after he had inherited the land from his father, the late Mr John Kofi Appiah, who also got the ownership of the land from Numo Ayitey Cobblah in May 1977.

According to the mission, it had since the date of acquiring ownership of the land been paying ground rent to the Administrator of Stool Lands, as well as making other payments on it.

Led by its General Affairs Secretary, Alhaj Abdul Rahman Ennin, and supported by its lawyers and some elders, the mission said as religious organisations, it was incumbent on both the church and the mission to set the right example by solving the issue amicably.

Alhaj Ennin said the two religious organisations should not fight over land that could lead to riots and create unnecessary tension, hence the need for dialogue.

He said the court should be the last resort and promised that “the mission will not adopt steps that will be violent in pursuance of the land”.

He, however, cautioned that its attempt at calling for dialogue should not be misconstrued to mean that it did not have any legal claim to the land.

He also cautioned its followers that the mission had no intention of building a mosque on the land, as was being peddled by some of its members, saying that the unsanitary conditions in the area did not permit the citing of a mosque there.

He, therefore, called on its members not to use that to inflame passions unnecessarily, as was currently being done.

The squatters, according to the mission, gained access to the land when it granted three of its members permission to operate their fitting workshop on it.

A letter dated April 2000 also showed that the mission, through its lawyers, had written a ‘Notice to quit’ order to the Project Director of the China International Water and Electricity Corporation when it established an operational unit on the plot.

It said the mission rescinded its decision later when the company explained that it was only seeking temporary shelter when it was constructing the Odaw drain.

The mission realised that the construction of the drain was going to be beneficial to it with regard to the citing of its land.

In an interview, the Secretary to the Bishop of the WMCI, Pastor Susan Hanson, said the church was ready to dialogue, adding that it was going to respond to a letter sent to it by the mission requesting for the peaceful settlement of the case.

“There is the possibility that we only share a common boundary,” she said, adding that the church was ready to go into the demarcation of the land to know the boundaries.

Twenty-three people who were arrested by the police during the riot have so far been remanded in prison custody, while Bishop Frimpong, the General Secretary of the WMCI,` has been granted bail by an Accra High Court.