CID picks up 2 top officials of Lands Commission for fraud

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has picked up two top officials on Thursday at the Land Valuation Department of the Lands Commission for alleged fraud.

The two, Lawrence Nutakor and another whose name was not given allegedly forged documents of the land belonging to one Adwoa Okyere and attempted selling it to another person.

Speaking to Joy News after the arrest, a legal representative of the Commission, Yaa Agyeman Boadi, said they called in the Police after realising documents that were said to have been issued by the officials of the Commission were forged.

She said signatures of the legal beneficiaries of the estate were also forged.

The National Chairman of the Lands Commission, Nana Ampofo Adjei, who called the CID to make the arrest, told the media there is the need for such “gigantic” fraud to come to an end at the Commission.

“If you in your in your investigations you have reason to think [suspects] have accomplices, in and outside the Commission, please don't hesitate at all in dealing with them too”, he appealed to the Police.

The Lands Commission is an Agency under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources charged with, among other functions, the management of public land and any lands vested in the President by the Constitution on behalf of the Government.