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Achimota Forest: Let's ban the return of state lands to original owners — Ablakwa

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu has called for an outright ban on the sale or lease, or return to original owners of state lands.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

He said the return to original owners of state lands seems to have become the most abused concept in the country's governance history.

In a Facebook post, Ablakwa said "as few can muster the courage to challenge the fact that the practice has been tainted with self-dealing and cronyism."

He stated that "The colonialists and immediate post-independence political leaders acquired large tracts of land for development and appropriate spatial planning, however, the current generation of leaders appear to specialize not in adding to the stock of acquisition but on a mission of constant depletion."

His reactions come after some portions of the Achimota Forest in Accra, in the southern periphery handed over to the Owoo family in 2013, are no longer a forest reserve.

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It follows the coming into force of the Executive Instrument (E.I.) 144 gazetted on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on April 19, 2022.

This means effective May 1, 2022, those portions, [361 acres] sections of which had been developed and had already been granted to the Owoo family in September 2013 are no longer a forest reserve.

The Owoo family believed to be the custodial owners of the Achimota Forest said it has suffered grave historical injustice over the non-payment of compensation to it for the State's acquisition in 1927.

The family in a statement to set the records straight said "the much talked about 19th August 2016 ceremony which has been erroneously stated in the public as an occasion when the land was released to the Owoo family is false and misleading. That ceremony was a sod-cutting ceremony for the development of the Achimota Forest into an Eco-Tourism Park. The Owoo families were mere invitees/guests."

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It said "The acreage due the Owoo family was arrived at through a long-standing negotiation which in many respects predates the current administration. This was done with the active involvement of various State technical negotiators and agencies.

Ablakwa commenting on the development asked: "How can a country that needs to build more affordable houses to address the acute millions of housing deficit; a country whose doctors, nurses, lecturers, civil servants, teachers, security personnel — who all cannot be efficient in the discharge of their duties because of terribly poor proximity to work; a country lacking adequate recreation centres, sporting facilities, industrial zones, transportation hubs, schools, hospitals, prisons, shelters for the vulnerable and abused, parks and green belts, and yet, we are busily selling or purportedly returning every available land bank acquired by our forebears."

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