Government halts land 'grab'

THE government says it has halted with immediate effect, the “rampant disposal of state lands in some prime areas in Accra” under the Accra Redevelopment Policy.
It has also referred the report of the National Security on the acquisition of such lands to the Attorney General’s office for advice on the future of the policy, which was instituted to facilitate the redevelopment of some government lands and houses in prime areas including Cantonments, Airport Residential Area, Kanda, Switchback and Ridge.
Explaining the government’s position to the Daily Graphic yesterday, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the intervention was necessitated by the abuse to which the policy was subjected, characterised by “reckless and indiscriminate disposal of state lands”.
Already, 15 beneficiaries who paid between GH¢15,000 and GH¢20,000 each for lands at the former International Students Hostel, have had their monies refunded to them, according to Mr Ablakwa.
He mentioned some of the persons who acquired the land during the Kufuor Administration and whose monies had been paid back to them as the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood; Mr Freddie Blay, a former First Deputy Speaker of Parliament; Mr K.T. Hammond, a former Deputy Energy Minister; Ms Irene Addo, MP for Tema West; Hajia Alima Mahama, a former Women and Children’s Affairs Minister, and Ms Oboshie Sai Cofie, a former Minister of Tourism.
Others are Dr Abu Sakara Forster, the 2008 CPP Vice Presidential candidate; Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, the MP for Abirem; Mr K.K. Sarpong, a former Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery; Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, a former Chief Executive of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority; Mr Frank Mpare, a former Secretary to the Cabinet, and Prof. Ekua Kuenyehia, a law professor, and Ambassador Kobina Woode.
According to Mr Ablakwa, the presidential directive to the Attorney General will cover over 235 private and corporate entities that have acquired state lands at these prime areas.
He expressed the government’s disappointment at the increasing rate at which the 1999 Accra Redevelopment policy had been abused with impunity.
Last Thursday, the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a pressure group, called on President Mills to set up an independent commission of enquiry to probe the allocation of state lands and government assets.
Providing a background to the issue, Mr Ablakwa said in 1999, the government came up with a policy called Accra Redevelopment Policy, under which government bungalows sited on large tracts of land were redesigned to ensure that more buildings occupied such lands.
Mr Ablakwa explained further that under the policy, the government was able to build more bungalows, while Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) also built some estates on some of those lands.
He said it was later realised that some state and public officials had abused the system and acquired lands at ridiculously low prices for their personal use without resorting to the proper procedure.