Story Highlights
- On August 22, 2026, roughly 200 armed men accompanied by police allegedly entered the Accra Turf Club’s Borteyman racecourse with nine bulldozers and an excavator, demolishing about 100 horse stables and other facilities.
- The club says the operation was led by two individuals identified as Clement Dzato and “Azuma,” with police under an officer identified as DSP Malaika providing security rather than intervening.
- One police officer, DSP Alhassan Malaika Jibril, has been interdicted pending investigation by the Criminal Investigations Department and the Police Professional Standards Bureau.
- The club traces its claim to the land to a 2005 High Court order and a 2006 relocation agreement with the Ghanaian government, following the redevelopment of its original racecourse near the National Security Secretariat.
- On September 10, jockeys, horse owners and racing officials marched from Independence Square to Jubilee House to petition President John Dramani Mahama for intervention.
On the morning of Saturday, August 22, 2026, roughly 200 armed men reportedly entered the Accra Turf Club’s premises at Borteyman, near the Borteyman Stadium, arriving with nine bulldozers and an excavator.
The group was accompanied by police officers under the command of an officer who identified himself as DSP Malaika and told responding patrol teams he was based at Police Headquarters.
The club says the operation flattened roughly 100 horse stables, along with administrative buildings, utility installations, track railings, perimeter fencing, water storage facilities and vegetation.
Horses were reportedly driven from their stables, jockeys and other workers living on-site were evicted from their quarters, and the facility’s entrances were barricaded. After the demolition, the club said the armed group took over the site, ejected remaining members, and sold off salvaged materials — including railings, roofing sheets and water-tank stands — on the spot.
Club officials say they alerted the Lakeside Police Station and other patrol units as soon as they learned of the demolition, but police intervention failed to stop the exercise.
According to the club, Clement Dzato, a Ghanaian businessman, told responding officers the land had already been transferred to his group, and DSP Malaika told police the claimants held ownership documents and that his team was there to provide security for the takeover.
The club maintains that no documentation or court order authorizing the demolition or takeover was produced at the scene.
A Racing Tradition Dating to the 1870s
The Accra Turf Club was formally established in 1923, decades after organized horse racing began in Accra around 1876. Over the following century, the sport became woven into the capital’s civic and social life.
Competitive fixtures once included the Governors Cup, the Accra Turf Club Races and the Brandford Cup before independence, and the National Cup afterward.
Ghanaian and Nigerian horse traders and jockeys — including a prominent Hausa riding community — built the sport alongside the colonial officials and European expatriates who first introduced organized racing to the Gold Coast.
The club’s original racecourse once occupied prime real estate in central Accra, on land that is now home to the National Security Secretariat, the Accra International Conference Centre and the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City.
When the government decided to redevelop that site, the club entered into a relocation agreement with the Government of Ghana on May 24, 2006, to move to Borteyman. The Borteyman parcel itself forms part of land compulsorily acquired by the state under Certificate of Title No. 214/40.
The club also cites a High Court order dated March 8, 2005, in Suit No. AE/32/2004, which permitted the Lands Commission to enter and demarcate 46.64 hectares of the Borteyman land for the club’s use.
That order was signed by Justice P. Baffoe Bonnie, who now serves as Chief Justice of Ghana. Club officials argue this paper trail gives them clear legal standing over the disputed parcel — a claim now central to the fight over who authorized last month’s demolition.
Police Response and Investigation
The Ghana Police Service has interdicted DSP Alhassan Malaika Jibril over his alleged role in leading the demolition, with the Criminal Investigations Department and the Police Professional Standards Bureau conducting parallel investigations.
The interdiction is the clearest institutional acknowledgment so far that police personnel were directly involved in the operation, though the identities and motives of the civilian group led by Dzato and “Azuma” remain publicly unexplained.
The club has called for a broader inquiry, urging authorities to investigate the circumstances of the demolition and prosecute anyone found responsible for unlawful acts.
It has also asked the Lands Commission to halt any further transfer of or interference with land earmarked for the club, and has appealed directly to President Mahama, the Interior Minister, the Lands Minister, the Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police and the National Security Coordinator to intervene.
Protests and Political Pressure
With little visible government action in the weeks after the demolition, the club escalated its campaign into the streets. It staged a demonstration on September 10 over what it described as government inaction, demanding urgent intervention and accountability for the destruction of its facilities.
Members of the horse racing community — including jockeys and horse owners — marched from Independence Square through Accra’s principal streets, stopping at the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Lands Commission before proceeding to Jubilee House to deliver a petition.
Presenting it, the club said it had come “to seek the intervention of the highest office of our motherland Ghana in order for justice to prevail,” calling on President Mahama to honor the state’s land-swap agreement with the club.
What Remains Unresolved
Despite the police interdiction and the club’s repeated appeals, the Turf Club says it has yet to see the government action it expects. Central questions remain open: who authorized the demolition, what has become of the displaced horses and evicted jockeys, and whether the Lands Commission will reaffirm the club’s 2006 relocation agreement or allow competing claims to the Borteyman parcel to proceed.
The club has warned that the destruction has halted activities at the historic racecourse and placed the future of organized public horse racing in Ghana at risk.
In latest news, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested Dr Clemence Gyato as pressure mounts on the authorities to unravel the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the facility.
For a sport that has operated in Accra for roughly a century and a half, sustaining generations of jockeys, trainers and stable hands, the outcome of the investigation — and of the club’s appeal to the presidency — will determine whether Borteyman remains a racecourse or becomes another contested plot in Accra’s long-running battles over urban land.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
