The Ga Dangme Lands Administration (GDLA) is planning to lead a crusade against what it describes as the continuous illegitimate sale of Ga Dangme lands to private persons and entities.
It alleged that successive governments had been selling off lands acquired from allodia land owners for public benefit purposes without notice to them.
It is, therefore, rallying all Ga Dangme indigenes to support the Administration in its endeavour to bring stakeholders to a round table discussion and plan the way forward to achieve justice and for sanity to prevail.
A statement issued on Friday by the Administration said compensation on some of the lands had not been paid to the indigenous owners while some expired leases had not still been negotiated.
Signed by King AyiTunnma II, Indigenous Chief of Defence of the Ga State, founder and president of the GDLA, it said some of the lands sold in recent times were the La Wireless, Ridge, Cantonments, and Marine Drive area.
“The government’s continual selling of acquired lands from the Ga Dangme people to private interests without the legitimate consent by the GDLA is not only confrontational, fraudulent and insensitive but it does not legitimate anxieties that have arisen about the handling of Ga-Dangme lands acquired by the government,” it said.
Recounting the history of land legislation and Public Lands Acquisitions, the statement said, the Gold Coast government enacted the Public Lands Ordinance, 1876 (1876 Ordinance) to acquire land for governmental and public benefit purposes such as Legislative Instrument (LI).
It said the enactment of 1876 Ordinance and a subsequent attempt by the Gold Coast government to amend the ordinance to designate unused land as public land, resulted in great turmoil.
The statement said compulsory acquisition of privately owned land for sale to private investors violates Article 20 (1) of the 1992 Constitution which stipulates that such lands should not be given to private developers.
“It was a regret that since the demise of his Royal Majesty, the late king of the Ga State, GaMantse, BoniNiiAmugi II, the Ga chieftaincy issues have not been resolved dragging the honourable traditional institution into disrepute.
“We have lost count and it has been timely overdue as some unauthorised individuals have taken advantage of the situation to engage in land sales to the detriment of most Ga Dangme people,” it said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
