Regional News of Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Source: GNA

Chief blames Lands Commission for Prampram land litigations

Prampram (GAR), Aug. 23, GNA - Nene Tetteh Djan III, Paramount Chief of Prampram Traditional Area, on Tuesday blamed Lands Commission for the numerous illegal sale of/and land litigations that have plagued the area.

According to him, the rule by the Lands Commission in which ownership of lands had been vested in sub-chiefs and family heads and thereby sidelining paramount heads had done nothing but empowered them to indiscriminately sell lands to people without being accountable to family members and the Traditional Council.

Nene Teteh Djan III, who was addressing the media after the sprinkling of Kpoikpoi as part of the Homowo celebrations at Prampram in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region, appealed to land owners to endeavour to preserve lands for posterity. He urged family heads to also reserve some lands for the burial of their dead as the public cemetery was getting full. Nene Tetteh, who is also the Vice President of the Ga Traditional Council, said the Traditional Council had faced a lot of financial constraints because no money was given to the Council by family heads after the sale of land. "It is sad, but Prampram has now become a very dangerous place to acquire land. People are now killing one another because of land," he said. He called on family members to let their family heads account for the sale of land so that they could all benefit. Nene Tetteh Djan noted that although there were a lot of development projects being undertaken in Prampram, they had not been well coordinated due to land litigations, adding that most of the building projects did not have building permits. He cautioned the Ministry of Youth and Sports to visit the Traditional Council for the amicable settlement of issues pertaining to the 100 acres of land it had acquired for the construction of the Ghanaman Sports Complex at Prampram.

Nene Tetteh Djan urged the government to create a separate district for Prampram and Ningo with Prampram being the district capital in order to facilitate development projects. Prampram, Ningo, Osu Doku and Dodowa are the four districts that form the Dangme West District.

Nene Tetteh Djan called on people from the Traditional Area to visit home often and take part in development issues in the area. He sprinkled Kpoikpoi, the traditional food, amidst firing of musketry in all the royal houses at Prampram and urged the people to live peacefully with each other.