On the occasion of Ghana’s 52nd Independence anniversary, we wish to state that we are very proud of the legacy that our forefathers have left and will guard jealously what they fought for with their sweat and blood!
We are however, disappointed in the seeming lack of State interest in the celebration of our Heroes, both dead and alive. The lack of commensurate National recognition for the contribution of Sgt. Adjetey and his colleagues to the independence struggle is only marched by the neglect of Amon Kotei, who crafted the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Ghana.
The 28th February incident, even though very key to the eventual declaration, has been a low point in the Independence celebrations but, this year the holiday ironically witnessed the construction work of some private developers at the Legion Village site, which the previous administration sold to its cronies contrary to the original purpose of the acquisition by Government for the welfare of Ex-servicemen who put their lives in harm’s way for mother Ghana yet deprived of the token land acquired to shelter them in their old age.
Amon Kotei whose Coat of Arms is the highest symbol of Authority of Ghana, its Sovereignty, the Presidency, Currency and indeed adorns everything important has not been given even a token recognition by the State except the erection of an uncommissioned statue of the Coat of Arms planted unceremoniously at the Independence Square area adjacent to the Accra Sports Stadium by the Kufour Administration, noted for commissioning uncompleted projects, so why not the Coat of Arms Project?
Today, we state equivocally that the Independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of its entire people, our lands, our heritage and the honouring of our heroes!
We applaud the Mills Administration’s commitment to the release of the looted GáDángme lands but, wish to caution that all traditional councils and chiefs must be made to render accounts of their stewardship, their land and other resources before any release or return of the land is affected.
The people own the lands; the chiefs through the Traditional Councils are only custodians of these properties for and on behalf of the people. Anyone who does business with these chiefs or thieves does so at his or her own risk. Since in our view, any proper transaction will require the consent of the owners and not the signature of the “watchman”.
We are greatly scandalized by the front page publication in today’s edition of the Moment Newspaper which captures rather graphically the example of the La Mantse, Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru II and some persons including an Executive Director of the Lands Commission, Nana Dwamena II, himself a chief from Prestea Hemang being tried for land related fraud charges. The entire Traditional Council, elders and people of La have been indicted for this unfortunate scandal
Mr. President, please bring to justice all those who have looted our lands as part of a grand scheme to deprive the indigenes of Accra of their lands regardless of rank or status in society.
The exposé by the media of many high profile “land grabbing“ cases in plush areas is crowned by the greed of those who demolished a world heritage site , The International Students Hostel to build a shopping mall, the Legion Village, Ghana Airways Flats, Police and Military Lands. We warn all these unscrupulous developers to Stop Work” immediately to avert the wrath of the youth descending on them, their investment and other properties.
Some members of the Gá Traditional Council have become a link between governments, prospective buyers and some crooks serving at the Land Commission. We call on the current government to halt these transactions and institute full scale investigations into the sale and acquisition of lands which bothers on criminality - Genocide and those found culpable to be dealt with according to the laws of the land.
Whiles we are aware that most Traditional Councils are manned by none professionals, for the simple reason that they are chiefs and that they are cheated out of their true value of their lands, the Traditional Council must take immediate and appropriate steps to have in-house staff with relevance to the core functions relating to Lands, Legal, Finance and Audit.
We propose these reforms to bring sanity to the administration of GáDángme lands to halt the rampant stealing of GáDángme lands and unscrupulous chiefs and land guards in double and triple sale of lands.
To this end, in the specific case of the GáDángme State, that the intelligentsia under the umbrella of GáDángme Council must facilitate the creation of these councils in their areas and source for professionals (preferably indigenes) to assist the Traditional Council’s discharge their functions creditably and avoid undesirable status quo. GáDángme Council should help source professionals for the various Traditional Councils.
We call on His Excellency President J.E.A Mills to freeze and curtail the activities of chiefs with questionable status immediately and prevent them from holding and exercising functions in that capacity either in the disposal of lands or holds durbars and commemorates festivals leading to the disturbance of peace in their communities for that matter Ghana.
We advise all persons who have paid monies to these unscrupulous persons to go for their refund from the agents who allocated these lands since the Traditional Council will not have any contractual transaction with them, since they knowingly conducted business with those fraudsters fully aware that the owners of the land were in opposition of the said transactions and therefore could not consider themselves as bona fide owners of the properties.
We want to take this opportunity to urge the President in line with his promise in the manifesto to return Ghana@50 lands stolen in the name of Ghana’s 50th Independence anniversary, in the plush areas of Accra namely La Wireless, Airport City, Cantonments, Ridge and other government acquired lands which by the actions of the previous government deemed to be no longer conforming to the original purpose for which they were acquired.
We urge the GáDángme Council to urgently coordinate with the various Traditional Council’s (Chiefs and elders) to set up escrow accounts for the various traditional areas to enable government transfer all outstanding compensation and the return of lands pending proper constitution of the said Traditional Council and or installation of substantive Chiefs with the active involvement of the people particularly the GáDángme Youth.
Finally, we urge parliament to take the necessary steps with the view to making us landless, this act of genocide they committed in their quest for property, repeal the obnoxious ACT 2 and other such legislation which will be uniform for the unitary state called Ghana.
God bless our homeland Ghana and make her great and strong!!
Nii Marma Marquaye
Vice President, GáDángme Youth Association
gádángmeyouth.blogspot.com
gádángmeyouth@gmail.com
P. O. Box CT 5422, Cantonments
0277 456 816 | 0244 683 108 | 0248 956 012 | 0244 851 489 | 0242 964 933
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