The Chairman of the Government Assurances Committee of Parliament has deeply expressed his displeasure over the Lands Commission’s failure to provide an up-to-date data on public lands and how the lands have been used so far.
The Committee posits that the data they require of the Lands Commission is to tackle the issue of fraudulent activities that have allegedly engulfed the commission in recent times.
According to the committee’s Chairman, the instances where government lands have been registered as private lands is nothing to write home about, hence, the need to have the Lands Commission furnish the committee with the requisite data to enable them unravel the mystery behind the lands Commission’s activities.
During the committee’s sitting in parliament on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the Chairman for the committee, who is also the Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, noted that, all efforts made to get the Lands Commission to provide the data has proven futile since 2022.
Mr. Ablakwa said, “If this data is put together and provided, it will help all of us. These instances of government lands being registered as private lands and the fraud that is going on at the Lands Commission, as exposed by the Soul Enquirer, the only way to stem this, to prevent this, to forestall this, is to have the data, to put the data together.”
“That is why I am clear in my mind that there are elements at the Lands Commission who don’t want the Ghanaian people to have this data.”
However, Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, explained that the Commission is doing all it can to transition from the manual system of operation to the digital system.
Samuel Abu Jinapor said, “The Lands Commission for all these years has been operating manually and it is just recently that we have started making efforts to digitise the records of the Lands Commission.
“The information I have from the Commission since I gave them the instructions to compile this list is that compiling the list from the 16 regions of the Lands Commission across the country from 1993 to now is an extraordinary undertaking and therefore they have not been able to put it all together as yet. And so I am unable to provide it now, but there is work in progress.”
Source: peacefmonline.com
