Kpone, Dec. 9, GNA - The Coalition of Youth Groups (CYG) of Kpone, o= n Tuesday appealed to the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to release lan= ds to the Kpone Traditional Council without further delay. Making the appeal at a press conference at Kpone, the CYG said if th= e TDC failed to reach a compromise with the council by the end of the year,=

"we shall be compelled to deploy the citizens of Kpone to take what rightfully belongs to them". The Coalition accused TDC of having failed to execute its core manda= te of managing the lands in the public interest.

Recounting the historical background on those lands, Mr Willi Josiah=

Nuertey, Spokesperson for the Coalition said, with the passage of the Compulsory Acquisition Act more than 50 years ago, government took over about 17,000 acres of land from the people of Kpone, the figure represent= ing about 90 per cent of the total land area of the traditional area. Mr Nuertey said in order to properly manage the acquired lands, the TDC was created while government handed over the leasehold to the corporation= .. He said from that time onwards, TDC stuck to its core mandate of managing the lands in the public interest, as a result of which it gave o= ut leasehold for the construction of many industries in Tema. The spokesperson said the immediate effect of the springing up of th= e industries was that it economically immobilised many citizens of Kpone wh= ose major occupation was farming. Mr Nuertey said the Kpone lands were acquired at a time when the population was less than one thousand, so therefore there was not a huge demand for land, especially for residential purposes. He recounted that from 1974 up to date, TDC had released a total of=

729 acres out of the 17,000 acres of Kpone lands.

He said it was regrettable that instead of TDC managing the lands f= or public use, it had deviated from this core mandate, and rather resorted t= o zoning areas, servicing the plots and selling them for dollars. Mr Nuertey asked whether TDC was established as a commercial enterprise, and said offering of lands for sale at a fee the original own= ers could not afford, "flies in the face of logic, justice and even common sense". From the foregoing explanation, he said the youth had no other alternative than to give the end of year ultimatum to the TDC to release Kpone Lands to the traditional authority, or else, the people of Kpone wo= uld use all legal means at their disposal to re-claim their lands. "TDC, please go by the time-tested convention and practice that if the purpose for which a parcel of land is taken from a people is no longer necessary, it is the people who have the first option or right of offer, and nobody else," he said.