Osu Traditional Council sets up lands secretariat
The Osu Traditional Council has inaugurated an office, the Osu Stool Customary Land Secretariat (CLS), to prudently manage lands in the area.
Advertisement
The secretariat will focus on bridging the gap between land management and administration in the traditional area and land sector agencies.
The Osu Mantse, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, addressing the ceremony, noted that with the establishment of the CLS, individual land sales in the area would be discouraged, as the secretariat would now serve as the only authentic place to transact business about land.
“I call on all citizens who have their property on Osu Stool lands to come and regularise their documents with the CLS. All should join to make the CLS work,” he urged.
Nii Dowuona also cautioned the public against people who would approach them claiming to be coming from the Osu Mantse’s Palace, demanding so-called ‘digging fee’ or land documents.
Significance
In a speech read on her behalf, the Administrator of the Office of the Administration of Stool Lands, Mrs Christie Esi Bobobee, said the secretariat would also assist customary landowners by providing information on their lands and by also keeping accurate and up-to-date records on all land-related transactions.
The administrator noted that challenges such as indeterminate boundaries, chieftaincy disputes, multiple sales, lack of record keeping and encroachment on public lands were still rampant because traditional authorities had not adopted proper systems to introduce technology, transparency, accountability and equity into their governance systems.
“The numerous land disputes clogging the courts also attest to the imperfections in our current system of land management which invariably lead to contests and result in conflicts, insecurity in communities and loss of lives and property,” Mrs Bobobee added.
She, therefore, commended the Osu Traditional Council for improving its land management system by accepting the challenge to bring sanity into the administration of its lands.
Collaboration
The administrator also called on traditional authorities, land sector agencies and metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to collaborate with their land management committees to enable them to function effectively.
She urged the traditional councils to consider the adoption of ADR mediation for resolving land disputes in their various areas.