Committee set up to check encroachment on vested lands along Accra Plains
The Government has set up a committee to ascertain the extent of encroachment by developers on vested lands along the Accra Plains, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr John Peter Amewu, has said.
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The committee will also control the haphazard development taking place on the lands to ensure their conformity to the standards of the ministry.
The committee, headed by the acting Director of the Ministry, Alhaji Sule Mahama, would also collaborate with customary authorities of the lands to ensure the efficient management and expansion of the area.
The minister explained that the move of the ministry would also minimise the rate at which issues of land guards were increasing.
Mr Amewu said that when he led a team of government officials to inspect some encroached lands along the Accra Plains.
As part of the exercise, the minister held discussions with the traditional councils of Shai Osudoku and the Ningo Prampram districts to develop ways to benefit from the lands encroached upon.
Benefits
According to Mr Amewu, the customary authorities who were the beneficiaries of the land were deprived of revenue generated by investors and thus the need for government to intervene.
He called on the Lands Commission to intensify collaboration with the former Town and Country Planning Unit and the committee and said their collaboration would plug the loopholes in the land administration in the commission.
Addressing the chiefs and elders at Osudoku, the minister said his outfit would expedite actions to prosecute offenders who encroached on the lands.
He, therefore, asked the clans of the traditional area to collaborate with the government.
“Government is prepared to manage the lands on your behalf. However, I urge you to unite as a people so this cause could be achieved,” he noted.
Execution
The minister criticised the Lands Commission for issuing permits to developers without due diligence, adding that this together with poor supervision on land proceedings, had resulted in the illegal encroachment on vested lands.
He said issues on lands were an integral part of revenue generated in the country and thus rigorous measures would be taken to achieve its objectives.
“I will not allow the encroachment on vested lands under my administration and people will be held responsible for their debt,” he said.
For his part, Mr Mahama said the ministry was laying down measures to fast track the land administration processes that would halt the long period it took to obtain a land title.
He also asked the public to avoid building their properties within 300 metres from the road to avoid being victims of demolition exercises.
Chief
The Secretary of the Heowe Clan, Nene Wam Djangmah V, who spoke on behalf of the clan, expressed their displeasure with non-payments of royalties to them after an investment company, the Volta Investment, was given the title in the early 60s.
He made an appeal to the government to give the necessary benefits due them and asked that the Doryumu-Ayikuma road, which had been neglected for years be constructed to ensures free flow of traffic.