Chief appeals to govet to make laws to regulate land tenancy

Ho, Oct 28, GNA - Togbega Gabusu VI, President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, on Tuesday appealed to the government to make laws to regulate the mode of contracts between tenant farmers and land owners. He said such arrangements should recommend standardised tenancy fees to be applicable throughout the country.

Togbega Gabusu made the suggestion in an address read for him at a-two day workshop on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with special focus on land cases for chiefs in the Volta Region. He also suggested to the government to allow chiefs to arbitrate over land disputes to decongest the courts.

Togbega Gabusu expressed regret that the land tenure system tends to exclude women from gaining access to land and suggested that women should form cooperative farmers groups to source for land. The German Development Cooperation (GTZ) is sponsoring the workshop, in collaboration with Ghana Association of Chartered Mediators and Arbitrators (GHACMA).

Miss Akyaa Arhin, Project Coordinator of the Legal Pluralism and Gender Equity of the GTZ, said the objective of the workshop is to enhance the role of chiefs in handling disputes to compliment the courts system. Miss Georgette Francois, Vice-President of GHACMA said long delays, frequent adjournments, filing of injunctions and appeals had rendered the court systems less effective in settling land cases thereby undermining justice.

She said Accra has 60,000 land cases pending before the law courts that would take an average of between five to eight years to be determined. Miss Francois said some land cases have been pending before the courts for 20 to 50 years, spanning generations of litigants, counsels and judges.

She said there is so much confusion in the land tenure system in Ghana that chiefs should serve as agents of solution. Miss Francois said many of the disputes now in the courts could have been disposed of easily under the ADR system.