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Some parcels of government land at Sogakope in the South Tongu District are being encroached on by a faceless developer without authorisation from the Lands Commission.
The land measuring about nine building plots is situated behind the official residence of the District Chief Executive and close to the banks of the River Volta.
An unannounced visit to the area by officials of the Volta Regional Lands Commission led by the the chairperson, Mama Dzidoase I, last Thursday saw construction works busily erecting concrete structures on parts of the land.
When probed about the identify of the developer, the workers claimed no knowledge of the person but only mentioned one Samuel Ofori, as the foreman who brought them to site but was currently on admission at the hospital.
Briefing the media on the development, Mama Dzidoase observed that the mysterious developer entered four out of the nine plots of land and also created an illegal access beside the DCE’s residence fence wall to site. They also connected electricity from the residence to power a water pump on site.
She also revealed that some plots of the land were allegedly allocated to the paramount chief of the area by the DCE without recourse to the Commission.
As a result, Mama Dzidoase directed the acting Regional Lands Officer, Mr. Jonathan Kwabla to engage the DCE on the development, as she ordered the workers off the site.
“Government lands are not free land for anyone to just jump on it and do whatever they want. They’re procedures for acquiring Government land and as we speak there is no request to the commission regarding the use of this land. So whatever is going on here is very illegal and the Lands commission will not condone that,” she stated.
Mr. Jonathan Kwabla, the Acting Regional Lands Officer on his part disclosed that, his outfit working with the South Tongu District Assembly recently completed a Redevelopment Scheme for the land in question.
The land being situated within a security zone, Mr. Kwabla said the commision do not intend to offer it out for commercial facilities but solely for residential purposes.
“We know that, here is a security area, so we created a buffer on the scheme. And also if we’re allocating plots, it will solely be for residences and not for anything of commercial or recreational value.”
The Commission thus vowed to get to the bottom of the issue and ensure the right procedures are followed.
By Lambert Coffie, Volta Region – Daily Mail GH
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