Chiefs set records straight on Redco lands

Accra, June 25 GNA - The Chiefs and elders of La- Nkwantanang and Agbogba on Monday reacted to the purported return to one Mr Teodoro Martinez Montero, the uncompleted houses and 40 percent of the undeveloped part of Legonman lands, also known as the Redco lands. "We must make it clear once and for all, that there is no undeveloped land available for him at Nkwatanang or Agbogba. We shall cooperate with him to complete the structures that are on the ground only if compensation for lands already utilised by his company is paid".

Nii Ayi Lamptey, spokesman for La Nkwantanang, speaking at a press conference in Accra said the meeting was to make facts available to general public and to put to rest the case on the Redco Estates once and for all.


He said the group considered the latest development as unnecessary and perhaps born out of a mistake or an oversight on the part of the Attorney General's Department, given the facts of the earlier ruling. He said the publication on the lands came to the two communities as a shock and had caused tension and anxiety within the area, as developers who had acquired portions of the land for building purposes were equally worried.


He said the Ghana government, by Executive Instrument (E.I.) 20 of March 4, 1977 and E.I. February 5, 1991 acquired a portion of the La Stool lands at Agbogba for Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC) Limited to put up estate houses for sale to the general public. He said the housing project referred to the REDCO estates floundered along the line and BHC for which the land acquired was liquidated.


He said the remaining land became a gold mine for some former staff of the Redco project and some officials of the Lands Commission who illegally allocated portions of the land to individuals and organisations for their private use as residential houses and offices. Nii Ayi Lamptey said the two communities in 1988 sued the Land Commission and the Land Valuation Board to halt the dissipation of the lands and to seek immediate return of the undeveloped portions of the lands to the people.


He said since the acquisition of the lands, no compensation had been paid and so one of the reliefs sought was the payment of compensation at current market value.

He said on January 30, 2004 judgement was delivered in favour of the two communities and an application later filed by the Lands Commission for stay of execution of the judgement was dismissed. "As I speak now, no compensation has been paid," he added.


Nii Ayi Lamptey further stated that because the lands were compulsorily acquired by the Land Commission and the Land Valuation Board without any compensation, the judge ordered that the two institutions should sit down with the people to determine the amount of compensation.


He said after the judgement, the people took possession of the undeveloped portions of the land and allocated them to the inhabitants of the two communities.


"As I speak, the whole undeveloped land has virtually been taken over and there is not a single plot that is vacant," he stressed.