Bolgatanga, Feb 1, GNA - Mr. Boniface Gambila, Upper East Regional Minister, on Wednesday urged legal practitioners to help the appropriate authorities to find amicable solutions to land litigation rather than encourage the people to get entangled in protracted land disputes. "Even though your livelihood may be at stake, do not hesitate to tell prospective clients the truth if available evidence shows that the land in question does not belong to them," he said.

Mr. Gambila was delivering an address at the inauguration of the Upper East Land Deeds Registry in Bolgatanga.

He recalled the frustration and drudgery residents of the region had to go through in the past when they travelled to Accra or Tamale to process their land documents.

"The establishment of the deeds registry in the region is a manifestation of the government's policy of decentralizing land administration in the country."

Mr. Gambila said benefits of the policy could be achieved only if the land sector agencies, land owners and other stakeholders accepted to undergo an attitudinal change by "denouncing the old and complex ways of handling land transactions and documentation."

He appealed to chiefs and "Tindanas" to release land to government agencies for public projects without any requests for compensation, saying it should be regarded as the contribution of the local communities towards the development of their area.

Mr Gambilla urged the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines to embark on a public education campaign in the region to sensitize the people on the need to document their land transactions.

Mr. Andrew Adjei Yeboah, the Deputy Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, said it was in recognition of the importance of land in the national life that the government had instituted the Land Administration Project (LAP) to lay the foundation for a land reform system that is fair, efficient, cost-effective and also enhances security of tenure. He called on staff of the Deeds Registry to eschew all acts that were likely to frustrate prospective registration applicants or cause delays in the process and warned that the Ministry would not hesitate to sanction any staff who would misconduct themselves or undermined the policy.

Mr. Robert Ajene, a retired educationist who chaired the function, urged people in the region to refrain from the indiscriminate sale of family land.

"By selling off your land now and squandering the proceeds you will make poverty more endemic because you will be impoverishing your own descendants will would have no land to farm in future," he said.