Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Save CSIR land from encroachers!

Yesterday, the Na­tional Executives of Star Associations of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had a press conference to appeal to the government to help it retrieve its land in the Pokuase/Amasaman area that is being taken over by devel­opers, including the govern­ment itself.

A statement read to the media evokes emotions as it narrates the involvement of the government in taking over parts of the over 400 acres of land.

Even though at a point the Council kowtowed to the pressure of the government in taking part of the land for an affordable housing project, what is worrying is that the process was deprived of hon­esty and transparency.

The situation has now come to a point where private developers are taking over the whole land much to the disregard of the terms of the initial agreement.

If the CSIR presser is anything to go by, then the President of the Republic of Ghana must step in to cause the arrest of developers using his name to appropriate the land for their bene­fits. What is more worrying is that over 400 acres of the land are being cleared and in the process destroying on­going scientific experiments, as well as valuable CSIR research materials that have taken decades to develop on experimental field plots.

The CSIR was established by NLC Decree 293 of October 10, 1968, amended by NLCD 329 of 1969, and re-established in its present form by CSIR Act 521 on November 26, 1996.

Since its establishment, CSIR has been at the forefront of the development of various crop varieties, conservation of Ghana’s indigenous genetic resources, soil classification and conservation practices, food processing and preserva­tion, forest and water resourc­es management; building and road technology: agriculture, aquaculture, and food security.

This shows how important the Council is and its various activities call for the use of land and structures at various places in the country.

For instance, by Executive Instrument 38 (E.I. 38), the government in 1976 estab­lished the CSIR-Animal Research Institute (ARI) on land measuring over 1,000 acres at Adentan-Frafraha, and given the mandate to conduct research into the development and transfer of livestock and poultry technol­ogies to communities, farmer groups, private and public organisations.

The sad thing is that CSIR has to contend with encroachers so the Pokuase/ Amasaman case is just fresh but not strange.

For example, on June 21, 2022, encroachers on lands belonging to the CSIR-ARI at Adentan were given a 48-hour notice to move out of the area or face ejection by the Greater Accra Regional Security Coun­cil (REGSEC), in collabora­tion with the Adentan Munici­pal Assembly and the CSIR.

We remember the appeal made on May 16, 2022, by Professor Paul Bosu, the then newly-inducted Direc­tor-General of the CSIR, to the Government and other stakeholders to help protect the Council’s lands from en­croachment.

We think encroachers on CSIR lands either do not know the importance of the Council or are just acting lawlessly.

We want to join any such appeal from the CSIR to protect its lands and hope the government, which is the last resort in matters of national interest, would help rather than being complicit in the CSIR land encroachment matter.