Hold officials who sold government lands responsible

Accra, May 1, GNA - Government has been challenged to hold responsible former and present officials found to have illegally sold, leased or rented state lands acquired for specific purposes, after thorough investigation.

Mr Daniel Nii Okai, Odododiodioo, Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), made the request through Ghana News Agency in Accra on Sunday, He expressed concern about the number of people who had occupied Government lands earmarked for specific purposes, stalling development and expansion.

Mr Okai identified the Ghana Railway Company, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority as some of the organisations whose lands had been occupied by people in the possession of what he called 93Land documents" entitling them to the lands either on lease, rent or sold to them from various organisations and persons.

Mr Okai who is a Member of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly differentiated this group of encroachers from illegal occupants and squatters in temporary structures and buildings without papers and documents but paying tolls and rates and rent.

He said officials of Government corporations, companies and agencies, who might have sold, leased or rented such lands now on retirement, must be recalled to explain their actions and disclose where the proceeds were lodged or how they were used.

Mr Okai noted that the programme to revamp and expand the rail sector as part of the Transport Improvement Programme under the Better Ghana Agenda of the government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills would have started to reduce the pressure on road transport.

Government lands that were no more needed for the purpose for which they were acquired should be returned to their original owners, he stated and said, 93It was wrong for officials of corporations, companies, agencies and other organisations to have traded in such lands" and called for action to taken against them.

Mr Okai expressed surprise that houses had been built with occupants living in them along the flight landing and take-off paths of the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Government land acquired for the Civil Aviation Authority, to mitigate the effects of aviation accident associated with landing and take-off. He recalled the nuclear accident in Japan some few months ago and reminded encroachers on lands of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission to the level of radiation they were would be exposing themselves to living where they should there be a nuclear accident.