Lands Commission to demolish houses at Wa

The Lands Commission in the Upper West Region would embark on a massive demolishing of private properties around the premises of the Wa Airstrip.

The exercise, which would be done in collaboration with the Ghana Airport Limited, would see hundreds of houses that were built on the government acquired land razed to the ground.

Mr. Yaw Achampong Amoah, the Acting Regional Lands Officer who was at the site on Tuesday with his staff to mark the structures earmarked for demolishing, told the media that the purpose of the exercise was to secure the land for government.

He said the 328 acres of land was properly acquired by government in 1958 with the intention of constructing an Airport for the region in future.

Mr. Amoah said the encroachers turned a deaf ear to several warnings issued by the Commission and went ahead to build their houses on the land.

The Regional Lands Officer who believed the Lands Commission had no hand in selling any of those lands to the encroachers, challenged anybody who claimed to have legally acquired documents to his/her plot of land to come to the office of the Commission to prove it.

Mr. Amoah said the Commission would be carrying out the exercise in all government acquired lands in the region in order to protect them for the purposes for which they were acquired.

He advised the public to stop encroaching on lands that had been duly acquired by government, saying the practice was detrimental to development and must be discouraged.

Meanwhile, some of the people whose houses have been marked for demolishing are threatening to fight the Commission with the last blood in them to prevent their houses from being demolished.

Source: GNA