‘Ceding of stool lands to families, individuals worrying’
The Administrator of Stool Lands, Mrs Christiana Esi Bobobee, has expressed worry over the increasing pace at which stool lands are being ceded to families and individuals.
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She said it appeared some chiefs connived with some people to change the ownership of stool lands because they did not want the district assemblies and the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands to get their share from the sale of stool lands.
That situation, she said, denied the various communities from benefitting from projects that the districts should undertake with their share of proceeds from the sale of stool lands.
Under the law, 55 per cent of proceeds from the sale of stool lands goes to the district assemblies, while 10 per cent goes to the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands.
Mrs Bobobee mentioned the Greater Accra and Western regions as the areas with the most rampant cases of change of ownership of stool lands.
She raised the issue when she appeared before the Judgement Debt Commission (JDC) yesterday where she presented a list of stool lands across the country to the commission as requested.
Mrs Bobobee said many lands that the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands had captured as stool lands had now moved into the hands of families and individuals.
She said the change of ownership was done publicly through publications in the newspapers.
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Mrs Bobobee expressed surprise about the way chiefs kept mute over the takeover of their respective lands by families and individuals.
Sole Commissioner
The Sole Commissioner of the JDC, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, recalled that many chiefs who had appeared before the commission had made some contradictory statements over the ownership of land.
He said some of the chiefs claimed that the land in the areas were stool lands. However, he said when it came to receiving compensation from the state, the chiefs took the compensation on behalf of families and clans.
Finance Ministry
The Head of the Internal Audit Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Annoh Kissi, appeared before the commission in respect of compensation for the Volta Basin flooded areas in the Volta Region.
The lands around the Volta River were flooded following the construction of the Akosombo Dam in 1965. Cabinet gave approval on July 23, 2008, for a consolidated compensation totalling GH¢138 million to be paid for all the affected areas.
Mr Kissi told the commission that the Internal Audit Unit of the Ministry of Finance released moneys as compensation for the affected areas based on the information provided to it by the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission.