Bongo (UE) July 18, GNA - The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has been commended for the establishment of the Customary Land Secretariat (CLS) through out the country to help curtail disputes associated with land.

Mr. Clement Akugre, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bongo District in the Upper East Region, who made the commendation, said that the CLS Project should have been executed long time ago to help address litigation on land, which had led to deaths, injuries and lost of properties.

The DECE was speaking when a team made up of Messrs George Nti, Franklin Opong-Obire and Richard Owusu Asare, all officials of the Ministry, was at his office to inform him about sensitization programme on the Project in the District, at Bongo. Mr. Akugre expressed worry that the assembly had received frequent complaints about land litigation. He said the establishment of the Secretariat, charged to register all land titles and their owners would help eliminate land disputes in the area.

Mr. Nti said the had region had experienced land disputes resulting in violence and the destruction of houses and other properties and expressed the hope that the CLS would help solve such problems. He advised the DCE to ensure the proper documentation on lands acquired by the assembly to avert disputes.

Mr. Nti explained that under the project, all land owners would be assisted by the CLS to register their lands and have proper documentation.

He said that traditional authorities would be assisted to document land boundaries to avoid conflicts among communities adding that that the project would serve as a source of information on land for the future generation.

Sensitizing the durbar of chiefs and people in communities in the Bolgatanga Municipal, Bongo, Kassena-Nankana West and the Builsa Districts about the objectives and benefits of the Project, Mr. Opong-Obire urged them to register their lands since that was the best way to prevent encroachment of their lands.

He said that under the project, multiple sale of Lands would stop and that the ministry had so far established 38 CLS in the 10 regions to ensure the proper documentation of land titles.

Mr. Asare said that a land management committee has also been constituted in each of the areas where the secretariats operated with trained staff empowered to resolve land disputes using dispute resolution mechanisms, applying cultural mechanisms. He said that currently there were about 33,000 land cases pending in courts in the country adding that the CLS would assist in solving the problem.

The Paramount Chief of Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Aleemyaroom urged the people to register their land and acquire proper documentation and warned those who sell land with documentation to stop the practice.