Mr. Frank Kofi Lewi
…Nungua Chief of Staff urges
The Chief of staff of the Nungua Stool Mr. Frank Kofi Lewi has urged the various municipal assemblies especially those within the Greater Accra Metropolis to be up and doing when it comes to enforcing the laws against indiscriminate building of houses in water ways.
Mr. Kofi Lewi made this call at a press briefing to point out what he believes to be a major problem that most of the assemblies and traditional areas within the Greater Accra Metropolis are faced with.
He stated that the sorry aspect of this indiscriminate putting up of structures in water ways and the unlawful building without permit or title makes it look as if the municipal assemblies who have oversight responsibilities have gone to sleep on their duties.
Again, he indicated that some unscrupulous officers at the various assemblies are the very ones who are perpetuating this unpatriotic acts by issuing wrong building permits to people who doesn’t have title to the lands and also don’t do meticulous inspection of the building sites.
He cited a classic example with the recent building collapse in Cantonment which took the life of an innocent man because no proper inspection was done to check if the foundation was strong enough to carry the tall building they were putting up.
The Chief of Staff of Nungua who also has the power of attorney from the Nmati Dzraase family of La in charge of Cantonments and Airport family lands opined that this practice has given rise to the snatching of lands by land-guards from people who have titles to lands.
He said, somehow they manage to secure ‘fake’ indentures with fake signatures and attain building permits from the assemblies and proceed with these unlawful act as the assemblies look on.
He mentioned some of the areas where this lawlessness is most prevalent as Cantonment, Motorway, Kokrobite, Tuba, Adenta, Katamanso, Ashiyie, Ashaley Botwe and Nungua where land-guards and some other persons seize Stool lands and build on them without legitimate documents.
“Sometimes it’s just so sickening to find out that people are building on government lands with just noted-proposals from the Lands Commission when in fact the laws explicitly states that lands which are not being used for purposes which it was acquired should be returned to the pre-acquisition allodial owners… but that is not being done and in some instances government haven’t even paid compensations yet but goes ahead through crooked means to sell the lands to individuals at a pittance which is very unfair to the real land owners”, Mr. Frank Lewi lamented.
He cited for an example that when Tuba lands were returned to them by government a couple of years ago, encroachers have taken a vast majority of the land through these nefarious acts of the land-guards with the support of some unscrupulous officials at the lands Commission which is causing major problems for the chiefs and people of that area.
“It is quite shocking how lands that are reserved for judges and civil servants in Cantonment for residential purposes are shamelessly being sold by government officials in connivance with some unscrupulous officers at the Lands Commission… these areas are strategically reserved for these judges for security reasons because one do not expect our revered judges to be living amongst the same thugs and criminals they judge”, Mr. Frank Lewi stressed.
He also ceased the opportunity to appeal to the Lands Commission to do due diligence on the fake documents and forged signatures which is causing serious problems for the Chiefs and the people they officially grant lands to.
