Government is expected to begin the road map for policy formulation on the disposal of public lands following a stakeholder meeting between OccupyGhana, Lands Ministry, and the Lands Commission.
OccupyGhana has in the last few months mounted pressure on the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to provide legal grounds for the return of public lands to pre-acquisition owners.
In a press statement released on Tuesday, August 23, OccupyGhana reiterated its calls on government to produce the legal basis and policy directive on the release of lands to the pre-acquisition owners.
The group highlighted the take-home outcomes of the meeting between the stakeholders involved.
“Lands Commission is still compiling all returns of all public lands from the regions and will submit that to occupyGhana when it is ready.”
“Within one month, the Lands Commission will draft the Policy Directive and submit them to the Ministry to consider for adoption”.
Among other things, the group also expressed concerns about the failure of the state not to have any legal directive on the said matter after 30 years of the coming into force of the 1992 constitution.
It maintained that: “The effect of this is that we have an opaque Ad-hoc system, which in itself is unconstitutional.”
The group is also calling for the amendment of section 13 of the Land Act to bring in managers of Public Lands.
The group believes that the Act is selective in nature.
“The selective criminalization of the Land Act is discriminatory, wrong, and therefore unconstitutional. Our view is that the list of specific crimes that public officers may commit under section 277 of the Land Act does not cover the breach of their fiduciary and accountability duties”.