Bono Minister Charges State institutions to protect government lands

The Bono Regional Minister Mad. Justina Owusu Banahene has charged all state institutions with the Bono region to be vigilant and put in place measure to document all state lands with Land commission to avoid future encroachments and avoidable litigations.

Mad. Justina Owusu Banahene said this when she received a fact finding report about the land ownership of the disputed Ridge Experimental cluster of school in Sunyani from a 5 member independent committee established by the regional minister.

Mad. Justina Owusu Banahene said the level of encroachment, disputes and litigations on public lands given by Nananom to serve public purposes is on the ascendency, however, the beneficiary institutions ought to put in measures to stop such practices.

Mad. Justina Owusu Banahene said the ever increasing indiscipline in the domestic land market is an eyesore and it is important for the duty bearers and beneficiary institutions to have ownership through proper documentations.

The Bono Minister received a petition March 10, 2022 from old students and the school Management as well as PTA that the Ridge Experimental cluster of school lands were being encroached by a private developers.

The minister expressed appreciation to the committee for the good work done and promised to implement the findings of the report.

Upon receiving the petition, she constituted a 5-member Committee headed by the Bono Regional principal Attorney of Sunyani office of the Attorney-General and The Deputy Coordinating Director of Bono Regional Coordinating Council, Mr Alexander Bae Yeboah, the secretary to the committee.

The rest are the Regional Director of Ghana Education Services-member, The Regional Commander National Investigative Bureau-Member, Professor Eric Ofosu Antwi, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR)-Member and the Municipal Planning Officer Sunyani West Municipal Assembly-Member.

The committee was tasked to establish among other facts whether:

1. There had been re-zoning and release of the portions of land to private developers by the regional lands commission secretariat and if so, was it appropriate and necessary in relation to the land use and spatial planning of the Sunyani Municipality.

2. Establish the extent to which the re-zoning has affected the school land.

iii. The change of use for commercial activities of other uses would have negative impacts on the academic progress and future development of the schools.

1. Any relevant information that would help avoid any such future occurrences.

2. Make appropriate recommendations to forestall any emergence of such disputes on the public lands.

Mad. Justina Owusu Banahene said she wanted independent work hence the composition of the committee and added that none of the members is a native of Sunyani and tasked them to investigate the matter in order to address the concerns of the petitioners.

Secretary of the committee, Mr. Alexander Bae Yeboah said, the committee found that no re-zoning have taken place by lands Commission on the school lands.