The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Benito Owusu-Bio, has cautioned the public to get their lands registered legally to avoid future implications such as demolitions. “Those who are doing the right thing will be encouraged, while those doing the wrong thing will be reprimanded,” he disclosed.
Speaking to journalists in Accra yesterday, he condemned encroachment activities on government-owned land at Mempeasem, a suburb of Accra. Mr. Benito Owusu-Bio, who paid a working visit to Mempeasem on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, to witness for himself the situation at the site, also declared the government’s determination to win back the acres of encroached land.
According to the Minister, the main purpose of his visit was also to show Ghanaians, and the general public, activities the Lands Commission had been carrying out in the area, which was to protect government lands and ensure that all developments, especially on state lands, conformed to well planned schemes.
“State lands must not be left for people to develop and turn into slums. Also, we should not sit down for people to just encroach on government-owned lands and take them as their private properties; that should never be the case,” he charged.
After issuing numerous warnings to stop building such structures, Mr. Benito Owusu-Bio said that the majority of development at the site was carried out without proper development plans. He added that owners of such structures must get them regularised, and those that could not be regularised would be peacefully ejected to help save the lands for present and future generations to use.
The Deputy Minister also mentioned that in order to clean up and guarantee efficient administration of lands in the country, the Ministry and the Lands Commission would work in conjunction with the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council to ensure sanity.
He noted that the Lands Ministry and all other stakeholders would continue this action of demolitions without any strife, not only at Mempeasem, but in areas such as CSIR, Frafraha, Sakumano Ramsar Site, and Diary Farms Amrahia among others.
Responding to the question of compensating the chiefs in the areas who may lay claims to these lands, he disclosed that the government, through the Lands Commission, had in 2019 compensated the chiefs a second time, with 114 acres of land out of a total of 225 acres in the area.
He also clarified that AYNOK Holdings was a legitimate company contracted by the Lands Commission to support them in reclaiming government lands, stressing that “the Commission has the constitutional mandate to employ whoever they choose to support them in their line of work, and that is why they work with the police, the Military, and all those security agencies to help eliminate the illegalities in the system.”
According to Mr. Owusu-Bio, the Minister for Lands, Mr. Samuel A. Jinapor, had given the lands sector his entire support and blessing, since he was deeply worried about these land concerns, and had directed them to make sure that the right thing was done everywhere.
The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Mr. James Ebenezer Kobina Dadson, stated that the Lands Commission had obtained the Ayawaso West Assembly’s approval to start a properly planned land scheme that would see to the construction of drainage systems, and ensure that the area was well laid out.
He also noted that residents who owned completed buildings on the lands must visit the Lands Commission to own up and regularise ownership if necessary.
“It will be good if those who have finished and furnished structures to visit the Commission to have them regularized, because when we start rolling out this scheme, even if you have a finished structure and it is in waterways or perhaps the paths designated for roads will be bulldozed off to make way for the road,” he concluded.
