for GHc 1,000

The issue of land grabbing which was the order of the day in the previous New Patriotic party (NPP) regime continues to attract condemnation by many Ghanaians across the country as they hail the present government’s decision to review the policy by putting a stop to such “immorality”.

The NPP which believe in the philosophy of property owning democracy shared many government lands to themselves and cronies between 2001-2008 at plush residential areas virtually for free as prices were very low.

It may be recalled that, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, current Chairman of the opposition NPP was sent to court by Dr. Omane Boamah and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in 2008 for grabbing a public property for his personal aggrandizement and prayed the court to stop any attempt made by Jake to acquire the property.

By a 6-3 majority decision however, the Supreme Court recently ruled in favour of the respondent. Cabinet in order to protect state lands for the future generations of this country decided not to continue with the sale of the land stating that "In the supreme interest of the people of Ghana, and taking cognisance of the Supreme Court ruling in the matter of Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey's immoral acquisition of a State Property he occupied as a Minister of State."

A document intercepted by The True Statesman reveals how the NPP abused their office by selling lands to themselves and cronies not only in the nation’s capital (Accra) but Kumasi which is the second largest city in Ghana.

The paper can report authoritatively that, the likes of Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, former President Kufour, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, Barima Kwaku Dua, Prof. Yaw Boafo, Asiedu Poku/Michael Adubofour and Louisa Adubofour, Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Cecelia Appaigyei, Anthony Oteng Agyei, Osei Assibey, Cecelia Dapaah, Charles Osei inter alia all grabbed lands which were sold for either a thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc 1,000) and in some cases less in the Garden City (Kumasi) at plush residential areas which in the Mills led government’s own words is “immoral and unacceptable”.

The paper has noted that the NPP and their apparatchiks are only seeking political equalization by linking President Mills and others who acquired university lands under the Acheampong regime in the 1970’s.

The NPP communicators have on several platforms justified the many government lands they grabbed while in office and stated that President Mills also did same as a public officer.

The President himself has said severally that 50 plots of land were given to the University of Ghana, Legon, way back in 1976 when he was a Senior Lecturers at the Faculty of Law. The University then asked the lectures to ballot, and he was lucky to have been given plot seven to purchase. “It is therefore not true that I got the land because I was serving in government, I was not a member of the ruling party of the day. I was not a government appointee, as people are claiming,” he said.

The Re-development Policy which was introduced in 1999 was meant to sell those government lands that were idle to individuals through advertisement and proper procedures of land acquisition for onward intensive development.

The True Statesman

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