Industrialist expresses worry over illegal sale of land in Accra
Ghanaian Industrialist, Mr. Daniel Akwetey Tetteh, has expressed concern over the growing trend where miscreants adopt illegal ways to sell lands earmarked for community development projects to private developers.
He said the trend had become widespread at Kpone- Katamanso in the Greater Accra Region where some indigenes forged documents and secured fake signatures to sell school lands, cemetery lands, hospital lands and other parcels of lands allocated for community projects.
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Mr. Tetteh, who is the Board Chairman of Appolonia City, made this known at a fundraising event for Appolonia school in Accra.
The event was meant to raise fund to help the school to renovate some parts of its dilapidated blocks and facilities.
Present at the event were some state officials, including the Member of Parliament for Kpone-Katamanso, Mr. Joseph Tetteh and some of the executives from the municipal authority.
Appolonia City Support
Appolonia City has, over the past years, invested in a number of projects to support the development of Appolonia school.
The management has committed resources to enhance the education of the people. Some of them included the putting up of additional blocks for the Appolonia Junior High School, upgrading of a CHPS compound for the municipality, and installation of water tanks for the school children.
As part of the fundraising event, the management of Appolonia City pledged to give the school GH¢60,000 to aid them in repairing broken down facilities and to commence work on a new classroom block ahead of the school's 75th anniversary next year.
Search before you buy
According to Mr. Tetteh, one of the reasons that had contributed to the sale of unauthorised lands was the refusal of land buyers to follow due process.
Instead of them to undertake due diligence before making any attempt to buy lands, he said most of them decided to go ahead without proper checks and later hired the services of land guards to protect those " illegal lands".
Mr. Tetteh, popularly referred to as “ Dan T” expressed surprise that some developers had decided to pay huge sums of money for lands without following due diligence.
In the case of Appolonia town, a suburb of Greater Accra, he said the culprits were mostly unsuspected individuals, including some Ga- Adangbe indigenes.
Mr. Tetteh said just last year, a retired teacher at Appolonia town connived with people in an attempt to sell lands earmarked for a school, cemetery and hospital to interested developers.
He said the community would not allow anybody who made any attempt to develop community land, adding that " we will resist any such move".
Mr. Tetteh said he did not understand why some people would allow their own personal interest to override the collective benefit of the community.
“You are selling every piece of land forgetting that these lands are supposed to be protected and wisely invested to benefit the people. God is not creating any more land in case people have forgotten,’ he said.
Mr. Tetteh said Ga people were only fortunate to be in Greater Accra where the value of land was high, adding that elsewhere, people had 1000 acres of land left untouched and yet the people managed to find a way to support their families without engaging in misdeeds.
He said if efforts were not made to end the sale of unauthorised lands in Greater Accra, the image of Ga Adangbes would continue to lose respect and honour among the Ghanaian community.
Kpone-Katamanso
Mr. Tetteh, therefore, called on the Kpone- Katamanso Municipality, the Ga Adangbe leadership in government and the MP of the constituency to join forces in combating land crimes in Appolonia town.
He also used the occasion to commend the new Inspector of Police (IGP), Dr. Akuffo Dampare, for his commitment to combat crime and indiscipline in the country.
