Minister wants encroachers to vacate TEXPO land

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has cautioned encroachers of lands belonging to the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) to stop any further development, as they do so at their own risk.

The MDPI leased the land in question to the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) as a mini-trade fair centre, the Tema Export Promotion (TEXPO), 14 years ago but it has been overtaken by encroachers. 

The land stretches from the Community 18 Junction at Baatsona on the Spintex Road and could cover about 40 football fields.

The minister asked the encroachers to provide documents covering their acquisition to enable the ministry to deal with the people behind the nefarious activity of selling the land.

Mr Awuah gave the warning when he embarked on a familiarisation tour of the site in Accra last Friday.

The MDPI

The land has been encroached upon by individuals and entities such as churches, schools and the Ledzekuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA).

A number of completed buildings are on the site, while others are at various stages of completion, denying the MDPI, an agency under the Employment Ministry, the opportunity to carry out further expansion.

Land encroachers

Mr Awuah called on the public to accord the greatest respect to state property, particularly school lands which were of benefit to the entire citizenry of the country.

“I don’t understand the situation; there is an administration block and a hostel facility on the land and yet people are encroaching between these two structures, and when you ask of the owners, you are told they have gone to work,” he said.

He said the ministry would meet with the encroachers to determine how the problem could be resolved to free the land.

The acting Director-General of the MDPI, Dr Jerome Rudolf Awortwe-Abban, said it was important for the institute to recover what belonged to it to enable it to prosecute its mandate effectively.

Government’s support

Mr Awuah also paid surprise visits to the head office of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) and the Opportunities Industrialisation Centre, Ghana (OICG) in Accra.

The tour, according to him, was for him to pay unaware visits to some stakeholders of the ministry to see how they spent their day at work.

At the two places, he gave an assurance that the government was ready to improve vocational training in the country, noting that that was necessary to equip the youth with employable skills.

Appeal

The Executive Director of the NVTI, Mr Stephen Amponsah, who lauded the minister’s approach, called for regular visits to the centre.

He appealed to Mr Awuah to ensure that the needs of the centre were met to ensure maximum efficiency.