The Swedish Consul in Ghana, Maj. (Rtd) Amarkai Amarteifio, last Saturday told a desperate and stunned La youth that it is their own kith and kin who are misappropriating lands belonging to the La Stool and not government or its agencies.
The Consul, who is also a son of the soil, narrated how he and other highly-placed indigenous members of the community had been trying in vain to dissuade certain crooked indigenous elements from their senseless activities that had seen stool lands from the Burma Camp, Airport area through Legon to the borders of Dodowa and the Akuapem scarp, parcelled out and its proceeds misappropriated.
He was speaking at a forum organised by the La Youth Association (LAYA) to discuss developmental problems confronting the La community and the urgent need for rank and file members of the community to unite and move the community forward in development.
La is a town rich in natural resources but appears consigned to the dustbins of urban poverty, youth unemployment, drug abuse, teenage promiscuity and deplorable sanitary conditions.
Income levels are generally low, averaging some ?40,000 a month (about $6), according to a study conducted by a local NGO.
Persistent feuding among members of the traditional authority and clan heads has not helped matters as efforts to re-negotiate royalties owed the La Stool keep bouncing.
As a result of the muddied waters, there are also genuine difficulties in placing businesses or organisations in the town under any obligations to make social investments in the community, according to the LAYA leaders.
Farmlands behind the La Trade Fair and Burma Camp have also been encroached upon by non-indigenous developers, throwing the aging farmers out of employment and further deepening poverty levels in the community.
With the once flourishing fishing industry now on the brink of collapse as result of environmental degradation and lack of credit facilities, the angry youth say they are determined to use all lawful means at their disposal to right the wrongs created in the last 20 years, when La traditional authority was undermined by subtle political forces and intimidated ostensibly to pave way for the scramble for Ga lands.
The LAYA president, Mr. Frank Lartey, hoped that the forum would be the beginning of a healing process for the town in its bid to move forward.
In attendance were high-ranking professionals and academics from La, including Prof. A. Ablade-Glover, a renown artist, Mr. K. B. Asante, career diplomat and elder statesman and Dr. Paul Okang, a former lecturer at the UST and chairman of the La Stool Lands Committee and Rev. Drs. Kpobi and Quarshie, theologians.
