The Eastern Regional officer of Lands Commission, Surveyor Hans -Jorie has bemoaned increasing Land litigations in the region.
The development is breeding troubling situation of land guards and violence over parcel of lands, posing threat to security of the region.
The absence of legitimate documentation covering lands in parts of the region amidst high levels of land gobbling, particularly in areas closer to Accra such as Aburi ,Ayi Mensah, Brekuso ,Teacher Mante ,Nsawam , and Okanta is a major cause of litigation .
The Regional Lands Officer also cited galamsey, sand wining, Agriculture, and afforestation as activities breeding alarming land litigations in the region.
“In Areas very close to Accra, right now there is very high demand. The land values are gradually crippling to Eastern region as a result there have been lots of agitations for land by families and stools. This has been the source of litigation .Transactions that have been recorded years ago, or lands that have been disposed of years ago are being resold by current heads of Families because their predecessors were not keeping records.
“And also the plans especially in Aburi area they were using local grades those days, and even engaging surveyors to convert from local to national is also a problem. So you find that they producing wrong plans and if you bring wrong plans into our records it will also give you wrong information when we are conducting a search. So you find an apparent double sales all over the place and this is the genesis of these litigations and land guards.”
According to him, some Chiefs are fighting the commission to claim back their lands at New Juaben which Dr.Kwame Nkrumah vested into the state creating another troubling situation for the commission.
“Now when you come to New Juaben the whole of New Juaben was vested in the state,the whole land came under control of government ,reasons known to Nkrumah at that time, but over the years ,the chiefs have been agitating that the reason the vesting was done no more exist so they are fighting hard to claim back their lands and they are more less in loggerheads with the commission .This is also a serious challenge which needs to be addressed “.
He said efforts are being made by the Commission to sensitize families to properly register and document lands with the commission to mitigate the dangerous trend of land litigations in the region.
