B/A Lands Commission says it has not sold land illegally

Sunyani, Jan 21, GNA- The Brong Ahafo Regional Office of the Lands Commission has dismissed allegations by the Land Owners Association in Sunyani that its staff sells plots of land in the municipality and pockets the proceeds.

The Commission described the Association's claims as inaccurate and only meant to serve as a basis for claiming plots for themselves. This was contained in a statement issued by the Commission in reaction to a press conference held by the Association recently at which members accused the Commission of cheating landowners in the allocation of plots in some parts of the metropolis.

The statement, signed by Mr Sandy Mensah, Regional Lands Officer, challenged members of the association to present receipts or evidence of any expenditure they incurred on allocations made to families and individuals in the Adomako Scheme.

Mr. Mensah refuted the allegation by the association, saying the Commission paid 97,249,600 cedis for the demarcation and survey of the Adomako planning scheme.

Mr Mensah said the Adomako and Asufufu schemes, both in the Sunyani district, formed part of the stool lands of the Omanhene of Sunyani Traditional Area and by virtue of Executive Instrument (EI) 61 of 1962; the two schemes were part of the vested lands in Brong-Ahafo. "Only the stool occupant and his principal elders have the capacity to deal with stool lands."

''The power of allocation and management of the lands are legally in the hands of the Lands Commission who manages them on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana for the benefit of the stool."

Mr Mensah said he did not see the problem of Mr. Nkrumah-Oppong and the other farmers to the extent of organizing the press conference, "As the traditional authority has not had any cause to complain about the way allocations are made".

Mr. Mensah said the Commission, in conjunction with the Sunyani district statutory planning committee, Town and Country Planning Department, Survey Department and Sunyani Traditional Council, initiated the Adomako planning scheme in 2001.

On the allegation of payment of fees to staff of the Commission after allocating a plot to a family member, Mr. Mensah said the Commission, by virtue of Legislative Instrument 1688 of 2001, was mandated to take 500,000 cedis processing fee for each plot of land to be documented.

This, he added, is quite apart from other fees like customary fee of one million cedis per plot, which goes to the Sunyani Stool land and road development fee, determined by the Feeder Roads for services rendered to open up roads leading to new plots.

Mr Mensah said the Commission would continue to liase and coordinate with the Sunyani Traditional Council in the management of the vested lands.

He appealed to any individual or group of persons not satisfied with any part of the administration of the Commission in relation to allocation of plots in the district to contact him instead of jumping into conclusions.