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The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, has given an order for the demolition of all structures at the site reserved for an industrial enclave and urban renewal project. The site stretches from Afienya to Dawhenya in the Shai Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region.

The move followed a discovery of massive encroachment of the state-owned land by real estate developers, quarry operators and individuals.

The government acquired the land, which is 13,230.703 acres in size, in 2016 for use as an industrial enclave.

A visit to the site yesterday revealed, however, that the proposed project was facing a major threat of encroachment from estate developers who were having a field day. 

Mr Asomah-Cheremeh led a high-powered team from the ministry and the Lands Commission and more than 10 police officers to the site to ascertain the extent of encroachment and put a stop to the violation.

Observation

At about 10 a.m. when the team got to the area, it found pillars erected in segments all over the land, an indication that it had been sold out.

Some intruders were busily working on their building projects and claimed to have acquired the land legally.

Others were seen moulding cement blocks on their ‘so-called’ acquired lands, with others digging to lay the foundation for their buildings and putting finishing touches to nearly completed structures.

Those interviewed claimed they bought their lands from Mckeown Investment, a real estate company, but all of them could not provide documents on the lands they claimed to have acquired from the real estate company.

Mckeown Investment fingered

Mr John Quayson, who is occupying a portion of the state land illegally and whose building has gone a little past the foundation level, said he bought the land from Mckeown Investment.

He almost broke down in tears when he was directed to stop building, and pleaded with the team to let him finish applying the concrete that had been mixed for the day's work.

The visibly worried minister ordered all the land encroachers to halt work or risk being arrested.

Demolition justified

Mr Asomah-Cheremeh stressed that he would stop at nothing to ensure that state lands were protected from intruders, especially when those lands were needed for industrial purposes.

"The government acquired this land in 2016 and the executive instrument has been gazetted, so whoever buys a portion of it does so at his or her own risk. We will come back here and pull the structures down.

"They did not appropriately acquire it from the Lands Commission and we cannot allow the purpose for which the government acquired the land, which is to establish industries, to be thwarted. The public is hereby warned that anyone who acquires land here has not done so in accordance with the law and their properties will be demolished," he said.

Dawhenya

The minister and his entourage’s next port of call was the project site of the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme where there were also serious intrusions on lands belonging to the scheme.

The Scheme Manager, Mr Timothy Nuwordu, said the activities of the encroachers had negatively affected operations at the facility.

He said some ‘powerful elements’ had been using land guards to illegally occupy the state lands acquired for the irrigation project.