The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Hon. Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey ? Agbo, a.k.a Lion, has expressed misgivings about the manner in which developers and squatters are encroaching on government?s lands.
This he said, is a pure recipe for national disaster which will undermine development in future.
The Minister expressed this sentiment when he paid a working working visit to Orielly Senior High School and Animal Research Institute in Accra, in order to have first-hand information on the current challenges confronting them so that he could take a proactive steps to avert the problems.
This, he said after touring the two institutions he noted that squatters and developers have taken the laws into their own lands by encroaching on government’s lands. According to him, his outfit will not tolerate such negative practices and individuals who will not pay heed to instructions will
be dealt with according to law.
He added that, the necessary legal steps will be taking against the encroachers in order to pave way for development and expansion. According to him, any developer who wants to build or transact a business which is pertaining to land should endeavour to make proper enquiries from the Land Commission before commencing their projects, in order to avoid future demolition.
The Headmistress of Orielly Senior High School Mrs. Adu ?Gyamfi , lauded the minister’s visit. According to her, the school’s major problem have been encroachment by local squatters and developers; adding that even though several warnings have been given to them move from the land , they remain adamant claiming they have lands title deeds to the lands.
More so , she said school which relocated to its new site , last year has been facing lots of problems including bad access road networks , lack of drains and dwindling of the original student population. She hence appealed to the minister to help eject those illegal occupants since their presence is hampering the school’s development. A similar visit by the Minister to Animal Research Institute at Katamanso, also revealed that half of the lands belonging to the state have been encroached. The Director of CSIR- Animal Research Institute Dr. Naaminong Karbo , also noted that the encroachment on the lands has affected them negatively. This he said, several warning to the developers to halt work on these lands has proved futile. He has therefore appealed to the minister to come to their aid in order to eject the both the developers and the local squatters from the lands.
Source: STORY: Isaac Kofi Dzokpo
