Losing Out To Land Encroachers

The over 600 acre out of 13,620 hectares Forestry Commission land at Klagon in Accra now fully annexed by encroachers with the support of ready-to-kill land guards, represents a sore entry in our recent history.

The impunity is nauseating as law enforcement agents stand helplessly unable to stop the encroachment with tramol-powered landguards standing guard over gangs of masons and carpenters.

To think that the land encroached upon with houses already put on it did not attract the attention of the relevant authorities, prompts questions as to whether the law of the jungle as applied by landguards supersedes the state's.

The journey to the loss of so much land to encroachers did not start yesterday; it commenced with a single action, breaking ground for a foundation by an encroacher and an eventual proliferation of several others with nobody raising a finger at them.

With a large expanse of land available for grabs, the land guards surveyed the positive prospects and sharpened their machetes and oiled their firearms ready to be hired to kill or maim. Today, with so much land gone and no prospects of a demolition, the Forestry Commission – the state – for that matter, is the loser.

The biodiversity status of the Ramseyer site, part of the encroached land, is being threatened by the growing incidence of encroachment. The investor whose plan for a massive investment that would attract lovers of nature to troop to the place upon completion could, if the trend continues, review the deal considering the inability of the state to stop the encroachment.

We followed the CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John and management of the commission to the encroached land but that could not subdue the worry in us about the fact of land guards being a feature of the encroached land.

Former public servants and even government appointees constitute a worrying percentage of the encroachers. Under the circumstance, any attempt at reversing the statuses of the encroached land will, true to the Ghanaian standard, be politicized and government rubbished for being 'inhuman.'

With the borders constantly shifting, having done so thrice or so already, the land guards and chiefs who spearhead the encroachment cannot be trusted to stop the sale of the state land.

Sir John subtly warned that further encroachment would not be tolerated but as to how he can enforce this is left to time to determine because diplomacy in such matters does not work not when the land guards have been assured that demolitions are no options.

A chain of inactions and actions have led to this sorry state of affairs and we must add that unless state acquired lands are secured physically, the story of the Forestry Commission land would continue to be replicated. How sad!