I TOOK GH¢530,896.77 - CHIEF

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts yesterday heard how without a power-of-attorney, a chief received compensation of GH¢530,896.77 in the Volta Basin Flooded Area scheme.

However, Nana Kwasi Osamakwe II of Tokuroano Atafie which is the Adonten Division of Krachi Traditional Area insisted that his family elders had asked him to chase the compensation for their lands submerged following the construction of the Akosombo Dam.

Assisted by his counsel, Kwame Yankyera, the witness said he started to process for compensation around 1975 as chief of Atafie and admitted that at some point the documents were missing so he had to prepare new ones to be able to claim the amount.

“I became a chief in 1971 and in 1976 we took some compensation for our settled lands but we did not receive any compensation for the submerged area,” he testified.

He said the GH¢530,896.77 received was in respect of 10,000 acres and admitted that they also ceded lands for other towns to facilitate their claims and that arrangement had been done through Kwadwo Abba & Co who were the consultant surveyors.

Odumasi Krobo

Earlier, Enock Akwasabi Gbertey of Odumasi Krobo flanked by his counsel Christian Teye Azu who collected GH¢859,373.90 as compensation for 1,116 acres said the land belonged to his father and hea had initiated the process in 1999.

However, Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau said an MoU tendered in evidence by the witness showed clearly that Mr. Gbertey was to pursue the claim on behalf of settler farmers and when successful, should have shared the amount equally but the witness insisted the land belonged to his father.

The witness said he ceded some of the land to the people of Apaso in order to get his claim approved and said he was paid in one tranche.

Cabinet approval

Cabinet, in July 2008, approved a consolidated amount of compensation totaling GH¢138 million for various stools/families in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas and about 57 groups were said to have benefited from the amount.

Records at the commission revealed that GH¢71 million has been paid so far to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH¢67million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.

Some of the witnesses who appeared before the commission have been tendering in evidence site plans that did not have dates but had purportedly used the same documents to claim the money from the Lands Commission.

Some of the documents also bore the names of individual claimants but the witnesses have claimed they were making the claims on behalf of families or clans.

Apau shocked

Justice Apau has variously expressed shock at how the Lands Commission could have proceeded to order the release of the various amount of money to the claimants based on the documents the witnesses are tendering before the commission.

Furthermore, he did not understand why communities that were resettled by the government in the 1960s, given communal lands and paid compensation for crops destroyed by the Volta River floods could turn around to claim compensation almost 50 years down the line.

Asetena Mensah factor

All the witnesses have been telling the commission that one Nana B.K. Asetena Mensah, a leader in the communities in Krachi, was the one who had commissioned Kwadwo Ababio & Co, a consultant and surveyors to survey the submerged area out of which the individual plotting were done.

The commission has made it clear that Nana Asetena Mensah never came forward to make any claims. Rather, he delegated the Krachiwura who he said had no stake in the lands, to lead the chase for the compensation.

Abor SHS

In a related development, the commission has received a petition for compensation from a family believed to have donated their land towards the expansion of Abor Senior High School in the Keta District of the Volta Region.

Nancy Akua Osei, Headmistress of the school told the commission that she saw an anonymous petition on her desk but when the school’s board met the family, the faction that sent the petitioned had failed to attend the meeting.

She said the faction that attended the meeting told them that the land had been donated to the government and the claimant could not turn around claim compensation.

Sylvester Edah Tornyeavah, the MCE of Keta also testified in the matter and said he heard the issue for the first time from the Deputy Volta Regional Minister.

He said he searched the regional Lands Commission but never found any document covering the Abor lands.

Interestingly, the petitioner had appealed to the Presidency, Attorney-General as well as Ministry of Finance for compensation and Justice Apau said “the responses from the Presidency and the ministries strengthen the petitioners to pursue the claim.”