Lands Officer plots the demise of land maladministration in Upper West

Wa, Oct. 26,GNA - Mr. David Deribaa, Acting Upper West Regional Lands Officer, has drawn up an action plan to fight the general indiscipline that is associated with land acquisition and development in the region. His strategy seeks among others, the documentation of all customary grants of lands to ensure security of tenure, address the indeterminate customary land boundary issues, boundary disputes and issues of unclaimed compensation for lands acquired by government.

"We will make sure that every parcel of land in the region has an identified and recognized owner to eliminate the problem of multiple sales and disputes over compensation" he said. Mr. Deribaa said this at his maiden meeting with land lords within the Wa Central Customary Lands Secretariat. He is to coordinate the activities of all lands' sector agencies in the region as one of the key ingredients of the new land administration policy. He observed that issues of compensation payment for land acquired were creating acrimony in Wa and attributed part of this problem to previous compulsory acquisition of lands by government. To address the problem of multiple sale of land, he warned that nobody would in future be allowed to sell any plot of land to another person or party without the appropriate title to that piece of land. The landlords asked the Survey Department to give identity tags to all certified and accredited surveyors in order to eradicate quacks ones within the system.

They said the Wa Central Customary Lands Secretariat has designed a document and appealed to the land agencies to accept it as a requirement before any plot or parcel of land could be registered in the name of any person seeking title to any land within the area. 26 Oct. 09