Developers ordered to stop work on Kwamoso State farm lands
The Chairman of the Akuapem North District Assembly Sub-Committee on Justice and Security, Alhaji Sumaila Mahama, has asked people building houses on the Kwamoso State Farm lands to stop immediately.
He advised them to stop wasting their resources on those buildings because those plots of land are for the State.
Alhaji Mahama told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the Kwamoso State lands were meant for farming and not for building and therefore warned that at the end of it all, the Akuapem North District Assembly would be pulling down buildings, which had been constructed on the lands illegally.
He said documents available to members of the committee indicated that, the 4,200 acre Kwamoso State Farms lands were acquired in the 1960s from 96 individuals and families.
Alhaji Mahama indicated that the lands did not belong to any stool as was falsely being speculated in and around Kwamoso by some people.
Members of the committee had paid a fact- finding visit to Kwamoso to see the extent to which the parcels of land of the former Kwamoso Oil Palm Plantation had been encroached upon.
Members of the Committee expressed worry at the way large tract of the lands had been sold by some individuals at Kwamoso with impunity to some persons to build their houses.
When members of the committee later interacted with one of the illegal occupants, Mr Kwasi Anof, he told the Committee that he bought two plots of land at the cost of GH¢1,000 from one Osofo Fianko Bekoe, of Kwamoso, some six years ago.
Other occupants also informed the Committee that they bought their plots from one Twumasi and Kaya, all of Kwamoso.
During the tour, it also came to light that when the illegal sale of the lands started, the youths of the area who felt that their future farm lands were being sold out objected to the sale.
However, when they realized that no action was being taken against those involved, they also joined in the sale of the lands and also acquired some to build houses.
The Kwamoso lands were acquired under the Convention People’s Party (CPP) regime to develop the defunct Kwamoso Oil Palm Plantation and later 104 acres of the lands were given out for some flood victims at Kwamoso to build new houses.
After the collapse of the State Oil Palm Plantation, the Akuapem North District Assembly rented out the land to young farmers to do commercial farms to create employment in the area.
Source: GNA