Land Guards: Blame Lands Commission – Boahen

A private legal practitioner and deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has blamed the Lands Commission for the land guard menace confronting the country.

According to Nana Obiri Boahen, the commission has, over the years, been leasing disputed lands to some individuals – a situation he says results in land ownership fights.

Mr Boahen explains that even when courts of competent jurisdiction have placed injunctions on some plots of land, barring any organisation or person from developing it, the Lands Commission disregards the injunction and still goes ahead to lease out those properties.

He told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 18 December that: “Horrible and worse things are happening at the Lands Commission in Ghana and that has resulted in the land guard menace over the years. It didn’t start now.

“I will not blame any government whether that of the NDC or the NPP or PNDC or CPP. The problem is with the Lands Commission,” he insisted.

Citing a case he handled in Sunyani to buttress his case, Nana Obiri Boahen said “a court placed an injunction on a land in Sunyani in 2010 but the Lands Commission went ahead to give a lease for that particular land to some persons. I cited them for contempt.”

“This kind of attitude by the Lands Commission gives rise to land guard activities in the country because people then begin to look for protection for their properties.”