Minister inaugurates committee to oversee illegal land sales

Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, the Northern Regional Minister, on Wednesday inaugurated a five-member fact-finding committee tasked with the responsibility of looking into allegations concerning the alleged sale of state land in the Tamale metropolis.

Mr Salia Abdul Kudos, Principal State Attorney, is chairing the committee which has up to the first week in March to submit its report to the Northern Regional Security Council.

Inaugurating the committee Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru, said the formation and inauguration of the committee became necessary because of the rising tensions, accusations of alleged illegal sale of state lands to private developers in the Tamale Metropolis.

He said following from that, the Regional Security Council within its mandate of dealing with potential threats to peace, organized a meeting between the traditional authorities and officials of user agencies in the Region last December and discussed the issue.

He said the meeting agreed for that a fact-finding committee be instituted to delve into the allegations and to chart a way forward in dealing with state lands in the Metropolis.

The committee is charged among other responsibilities to ascertain the veracity of allegations of illegal sale of state lands, determine the extent of the practice of the sale and to recommend measures to deal with the illegal sale.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru advised the committee to approach its work with due diligence and be passionate in tackling issues and come out with a report that would serve the interest of the nation other than individuals.

He has, therefore, ordered developers who were developing on state lands that had contention to stop work until the committee finished its work and presented its recommendations to ensure sanity in land administration in the Metropolis.

Mr Salia Abdul Kodus, the chairman of the committee, assured the minister that the committee would carry out its work as fair minded people to ensure that the nation’s interest was served.

He said some of the land cases were already pending before court and that the committee would not investigate cases pending before the courts.

Source: GNA