Land owners call for compensation

Koforidua, June 23, GNA - Land owners affected by the construction of the treatment plant for the Koforidua water project at Bukunor, on Tuesday petitioned the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, to intervene to enable their compensation packages to be paid to them.

The 24 affected persons led by their spokesperson, Mr Moses Ayittey, who presented the petition to the Minister, claimed that since 2006 that the lands they were farming on were taken for the project, they had been suffering.

According to Mr Ayittey, there had been several deliberations with the Ghana Water Company (GWC) to pay them compensation, but that had proved futile even though the Ghana Valuation Board had valued the lands and specified the amount to be paid to each of them. He said at one time they were informed that moneys had been released to the GWC for their compensation to be paid to them, only to be informed later that their names had been submitted to the Ministry of Finance to effect the payment.

Mr Ayittey expressed concern over the inconsistency of the whole issue that had resulted in their frequent treks to Accra and other areas that mattered, and appealed to the minister to use his good offices to ensure that they received their moneys.

Mr Benjamin Osafo, Regional Land Valuer, who corroborated the claims of the petitioners, however explained that it was the GWC who would make the payment and the process was ongoing. He indicated that a total of GHC 232,854 had been approved as compensation to the 24 landowners according to the sizes of their lands.

Mr Osafo said apart from the land, assessments had also been done on the crops that were affected on the project and three batches of compensation had already been paid to the affected farmers. Reacting, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo appealed to the petitioners to exercise restraint whiles he studied the contents of the petition and made the necessary contacts to establish the facts around the issue. He told them that their sacrifice for the project to serve many communities in the region with potable water would not be overlooked, let alone deprive them of a compensation that would enable them hire lands for their farming activities.

The Ofosu-Ampofo assured them that government was committed in creating a better Ghana for all manner of persons, and therefore would not sit down unconcern for their lands to be taken away without any compensation.