Golf: Celebrity Club up in arms over encroachment threat
Tempers flared at the Celebrity Golf Club in Sakumono, near Tema, yesterday as furious golfers staged a spirited protest in a dramatic show of defiance against the ongoing encroachment and demolition of a boundary fence protecting the club’s golf course and an adjoining resort.
Led by the club’s captain, Alex Oppong Baffoe, alongside former captain David Renner and ex-lady captain Catherine Fabi, the demonstrators accused private developers of illegally seizing parts of the club’s legally leased land, posing a direct threat to one of Ghana’s finest 18-hole golf course.
Formal complaint
The protest comes just weeks after the club petitioned the Inspector General of Police on June 18, 2025, over suspicious construction activity near the course.
According to the captain, on June 7, a heavy-duty grader ploughed through a section of the fairway, prompting the club to secure approval from the Forestry Commission to build a fence along its vulnerable northern boundary.
But when the Daily Graphic visited the site, the fence had been torn down, with a disturbing sight of several new buildings rising.
“We reported the matter to the CID Director General and secured the necessary approval to put up a boundary wall, but the situation has only got worse,” Mr Baffoe revealed.
The club also had support at the highest level, as an earlier visit by the Minister for Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, who pledged to intervene and halt further encroachment, has yet to yield tangible results.
Adding legal weight to the club’s claim, Mr Baffoe pointed to a court ruling delivered on June 21, 2024, which reaffirmed that the contested northern boundary formed part of a legally protected Ramsar Site—wetlands covered under Ghana’s Wetland Management (Ramsar Sites) Regulations, 1999 (L.I. 1659).
Crucially, the disputed land sits within a designated Ramsar Site, part of Ghana’s protected wetlands. A court ruling delivered on June 21, 2024 confirmed that the northern stretch of the course falls under the Wetland Management (Ramsar Sites) Regulations, 1999 (L.I. 1659).
The club’s leadership is now appealing directly to President John Dramani Mahama and the Minister for Sports and Recreation to step in and act with urgency, warning that the unchecked development threatened not only the Celebrity Golf Club but also the very survival of golf as a sport in Ghana.
“This is one of only four standard 18-hole golf courses in the entire country. We cannot allow it to be destroyed,” he stated emphatically.
