State likely to take over disputed Lands

Government could follow precedents in the Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Western regions and vast intractable disputed lands in the Volta region in the state.

Notable among these lands are the ones over which the people of Peki, Tsito, Alavanyo and Nkonya respectively have been fighting for decades.

Togbe Afede XIV, President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs gave the hint during the first general meeting of the House in 2015 on Friday.

He said a special committee of the Lands Commission, which has been consulting stakeholders on the matter, met the Standing Committee of the House for advice on the issue.

Togbe Afede said such lands could be developed into military garrisons.

He observed that it was time permanent peace prevailed in those areas and the country was spared the cost of maintaining peacekeepers there.

The people of Alavanyo and Nkonya have been fighting over a parcel of land for over 80 years.

An initiative by government in 2001 which had almost succeeded in achieving a landmark peace fizzled out in 2009 and a return to the status quo.

A Peace Negotiation Committee headed by the Very Reverend Dr Livingstone Buama, former Moderator of the E.P. Church, ably assisted by Bishop Francis Lodonu, Bishop the Ho Diocese of the Catholic Church, had attracted attention of the United Nations which sent a delegation to observe the processes involved.

Kporvi, a vast stretch of land between Tsito and Sanga on the Ho-Accra highway has been lying fallow for decades with broken walls of homes to tell the story of a once-thriving community.