Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Justice Yaw
Apau, the Sole-Commissioner Justice investigating the payment of judgement
debts has said some of the claimants in the Volta Basin Flooded Area ‘conjured’
acreages to seek payment for compensation.
“It is not that most
of the claimants were entitled to particular acreages. They ceded the lands
based on resolutions they passed and that is how come you have these haphazard
claims for compensation,” he said at the commission’s daily sittings yesterday.
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.
Ahenkro
Nana Kafra, who claims to be Chief of
Ahenkro in the Pai Katanga paramouncy admitted that he collected an amount of
GH¢89,183.00 in five tranches for 1,600 acres for his people but could not
tender in evidence any site plan or a power-of-attorney mandating him to make
the claim.
He claimed he gave the documents to a
lawyer for litigation with the people of Motodua following a boundary dispute but
he never got them back and also admitted that they also gave their documents to
Kwadwo Abban & Co who were the surveyors in 2007 to process the claim.
The witness also admitted they were
settled by the VRA following the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
Apaaso
Nana Ampong Adjei II, a chief of Apaaso
who said they settled at Mpanmu in the Kwahu South District told the commission
that before the flooding of the basin, they lived in Pai Apaaso and they were
settled along side three other communities on a 4500 acre land.
He said he received GH¢1.161,547.54
which appeared on the commission’s record as GH¢1,036,379.54 and added that the initial payment of 125168
had passed through the Krachiwura.
When he tendered in evidence the site
plan used in claiming compensation, Justice Apau said the plan was in the name
of one Benjamin Boateng but the witness said “I was subsequently made a chief
and I was asked to pursue it.”
He could also not produce any
power-of-attorney authorizing him to make the claims.
Banda
Bonwesi & Grubi
Nana Omane Kuminte who claims to be a
chief of Banda Bonwesi made two claims on behalf of his town and Banda Grubi
who according to the commission were not even on the list of communities to be
paid compensation.
He said he collected GH¢34,573.44 in
five tranches for 656 acres on behalf of Banda Bonwesi and GH¢100,156.20 (although
the commission’s records showed he received GH¢68,177.62) for 1886.42 acres for
Banda Grubi.
He also said he was selected by the
families to chase the compensation but could not produce a power-of-attorney
and said they started pursuing their claim in 1992 until Nana Asetena Mensah
came in.
Ntoabuoma
Opanin Kwabena Antwi of Ntoabuoma known
in private as Col. Rtd. Alex Antwi also testified that he collected a whooping GH¢4,087,418.21
for 77,000 acres on behalf of Nana Akom Boahen of Akroso for the community and
was able to produce a power-of-attorney for it.
Akaniem
Nana Kwame Collector, represented by Kwame
Danso an Educationist due to ill health also testified and said that they had
filed for 3,326 acres and were paid GH¢158,319.04 as compensation but the
commission’s record showed that they received GH¢159,319.04.
Justice Apau made it clear that the
claimant was not part of the initial application process.
Beposo
Ismael Wilson who claims to work for a
consortium in Accra appeared not to be conversant with the claims including the
acreage but was able to collect GH¢621,828.13 which he said belonged to Beposo.
Adjade
Nana Kwabena Akuamoah II, Paramount Chief
of Adjade in the Brong Ahafo Region also testified and insisted that his claim
was on behalf of the families but Justice Apau insisted that the area the chief
was coming from had Stool Lands not family lands.
The chief said he collected a whooping GH¢3.518,184.46
in five tranches when in the commission’s record he had collected GH¢3.636.642
for an acreage that was not clear on the site plan.
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