GOV’T TO SEIZE ‘STOLEN’ LANDS

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THE NATIONAL Security Coordinator, Col.  Anthony Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), says he is battle-ready to ensure that state properties are properly safeguarded in the supreme interest of the people of Ghana.

According to him, all state lands which have found their way into private hands without legal basis and authorisation, would be retrieved and put into proper use for the benefit of the whole nation.

The National Security Coordinator said this when he received the final report of the technical committee set up to probe into the re-development of government residential properties in Accra during the previous administration.

'I have received the final report, and we shall work on the recommendations to ensure that the state gets value for its property,' he said.

According to the report, presented by the three-member committee to the National Security Coordinator, the due processes under which state properties were sold to individuals and government officials were not followed, and described it as illegal.

A three-member committee, which consisted of Mr. Richard Dornu Nartey, Dr. Lennox Kwame Agbosu and Mr. John Opoku, tasked the government to terminate the processing of the documents to the individuals and former government officials who bought the properties.

Some of the beneficiaries of the acquisition of the government properties, according to the Committee, included, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, an ex-Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, ex-Finance Minister, Kwame Osei-Prempeh, a former deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, a former deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, former Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, and now the national Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Dan B. Agyeman, office of the former President, Mr. Kufuor, Joseph Henry Mensah, former Senior Minister, S. K. Boafo, former  Minister of Culture and Chieftaincy Affairs and Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, former Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission.

Others are Mr. Stanley Nii Agyiri-Blankson, former Mayor of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, I. C Quaye, former Greater Accra Regional Minister and current Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, former Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu-Teaching Hospital, Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ms. Elizabeth Ohene, ex-Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Institutions, Mr. Emmanuel Owusu Ansah, a former Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Ghana@50 Secretariat.

Others are Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosah, Dr. Joe Blankson, Mr. Sam Garbrah, Mr. Stephen Ayensu Ntim, a former First Vice National Chairman of the NPP, and many more others.

According to the Committee, cabinet should review the lease agreement of each of the sixty seven allottees, to incorporate cabinet decision that frowns on the transfer of interest in grants made by the government to third parties.

The committee further recommended the immediate termination of the demolition of government bungalows, and the development of all the affected allocations, under what they called phase 2 of the Redevelopment Scheme, protocol, and in-filling allocations.

In addition, the committee called for the immediate withdrawal and termination of the processing of all leases, transfers, conveyances and instruments executed by the Lands Commission in favour of persons allocated the lands listed, based on the following reasons:

'The selection of the applicants/prospective developers for plots was not based on fair and transparent bidding, the values for the listed properties were on the low side, and did not reflect current land values in the areas earmarked for redevelopment, and the constitutional obligation on the President to use compulsory acquired lands in the public interest or for public purposes for which the lands were acquired.

'The obligation lies on the President to take steps to eradicate corrupt practices and abuse of power. All the allocations by the Minister of Works and Water Resources, with support of the Lands Commission, were without cabinet approval, and contrary to the guidelines laid down by cabinet.

The Committee further prevailed upon the government, 'To investigate, as a matter of absolute national necessity, the authorisation for the withdrawal of GH¢450,000 unilaterally from the Redevelopment Project Fund by the then Minister of Works and Housing, as part of government's counterpart funding for the CWSA, pending the establishment of the presidential commission to go into the identification and existence of that project.'

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