Gov’t pays compensation to ghosts

It has emerged again at the Judgment Debt Commission that some persons who compensations were paid to under the Volta Basin Flooded Areas did not really suffer any loss of land. The real victims, rather interestingly, have not received any monies to that effect.

Kantankofore, one of the areas that received an amount of GHc983, 116.97 was singled out by one Alhaji Abu Sofian Baba, a retired military officer, as one area that was never submerged but received compensation.

According to him, they were settled on their own land near Kantankofore, but later realized that, instead of being compensated, it rather went to Kantankofore.

This came up at the commission chaired by the Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, when the Major retired officer led 53 others to petition the commission in respect of those in the Kete-Krachi area which got submerged prior to the construction of the Akosombo Dam.

“Kantankofore, as I showed you on the map is a different settlement from Kete. And Krachikrom is a different settlement from Kete. In fact I will give you a document that shows that Krachi is made up of three settlements; the first one is Krachikrom, where the chiefs and the people are, the second was the station where the German’s first settled in 1894 and created their administration and the British came to take over then Kete”.

The retired Major told the commission that, Kantankofore was only about three kilometers away from Kete and, “We lay ownership to Kete by first settlement of that area”.

Briefing the commission further about their petition he said, “We did not settle on Kantankofore land, we settled on our own portion. It was acquired and paid for by the state”.

When the Sole Commissioner informed him that Nana Asentena Mensah represented the people of Kantankofore to claim compensation, he said they did not know anything about it adding that among the 52 villages displaced, Kete is the largest affected but in all the compensation paid they were never called by anybody”.

He told the commission that Kantankofore village is still in existence and has never flooded and therefore wondered why they could go and claim compensation for no loss while the actual victims are left out.

According to him, after their properties were submerged, they were given bungalows by the Volta River Authority and 14 bags of cement to lay blocks and put up some structures which they were to pay for later on.

He said 50 years now, those bungalows given them are still there and that farm lands given to them were so insufficient comparing to others who suffered the same fate.

The retired major by their petition urged the president to direct the VRA and the Lands Valuation Division to come and do proper demarcation in respect of the resettlement lands.

And that they also do not benefit from the VRA trust fund as well as the reimbursable fund instituted for the VBFA.

Contrary to claims by the Krachiwuru that the lands belonged to the stools, the retired officer tendered in a document to the commission indicating that they belonged to the community.