Engineer and policy analyst, Kosi Dedey, according to citineswroom.com has called for the prosecution of government officials involved in the sale of protected Ramsar lands, following a wave of demolitions in parts of Accra.
His comments come in response to petitions sent to President John Dramani Mahama by affected residents, who claim they legally acquired land in areas including Communities 5, 6, 10, 11 and 12 — all marked for demolition.
The demolitions are part of ongoing efforts to address growing concerns over encroachment on the Ramsar site, a critical ecological buffer and vital habitat for diverse wildlife.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, August 5, 2025 Mr Kosi Dedey reportedly criticised the current approach of targeting only property owners, while allowing complicit officials and developers to go unpunished.
“Our district assemblies need to sit up, and if there are any persons who are officially implicated, they need to be dealt with. That is how we ensure systems work,” the website quoted Mr Dedey as saying.
The petitioners allege that their properties were acquired in good faith, backed by documents provided by the Forestry Commission, which reportedly deemed the land safe for development. However, the state has since moved to demolish structures on the Ramsar site, citing environmental violations and unlawful encroachment.
The development has rankled Mr Dedey, who, during the interview, called for a full investigation into the role of Forestry Commission officials and other government actors who might have facilitated the sale of protected lands.
“Who are the Forestry Commission officials involved in this? When we simply go and demolish buildings without holding persons who may have encouraged people to build there responsible, I do not think we are doing good to ourselves
“Beyond demolishing the buildings, we have to go after anyone who has signed off on any of those documents.
“The developers who reportedly acquired the land and sold it must also be held accountable,” Mr. Dedey said.
The Chronicle fully endorses Mr Dedey’s stance on the issue and calls for full investigations into the encroachment on the Ramsar Site. As he argued during his interview with Citi FM, it was Forestry Commission and the Tema Metropolitan assembly officials who approved the sale of the land the subsequent development into residential apartments.
Though the property owners cannot escape blame because they ought to have known that every ramsar site is protected by law, those who supervised the sale must equally be held liable.
No one can convince The Chronicle that those who granted the permit for the construction of the buildings that have already been demolished or about to be demolished, did not know that Ramsar sites are protected areas.
Like the owners of the buildings who are today crying wolf, they knew that building on Ramsar site is not permissible, yet they went ahead to grant the permits.
In our view, we do not see the reason why such people should be left off the hook. They certainly must be fished out, put before court and prosecuted for aiding and abetment of crime.
Some of the recent flooding in Accra could be attributed to the sheer greed of these government officials, who have supervised the sale of Ramsar sites that are supposed to hold flood waters and release them gradually to equally greedy people.
Unfortunately, because none of them had ever been arrested and prosecuted for the role played in some of these illegal sales, they continue to perpetuate the crime.
It is undeniable fact that Ghana has enough laws, but if these laws are not enforced, it makes its enactment useless.
This is the reason why we are reiterating the call made by Mr Dedey that other partners in the crime must also be punished. In so doing, the government must not overlook roles played by our chiefs in such situations. Some of these traditional leaders are aware that some of the lands are not meant for sale, but they, in most of the cases, connive with public officials to sell them to the public.
The perception is that after buildings have been constructed on the land, no one will come to pull them down. This is what is fuelling the rampant sale of government lands.
The state must, therefore, start enforcing the law by prosecuting these erring chiefs as well. Until this is done, the encroachment on Ramsar sites will never end.
