Acquire properties through the right processes – Robert Cleggbac

Kofi Bentil - Vice President of IMANI

A legal practitioner, Robert Nii Arday Clegg of Clegg and Associates has cautioned citizens, who have interest in acquiring properties to do so through the right processes.

Mr. Robert Clegg said this in a public discussion organized by Imani Ghana, a policy think tank at the Coconut Groove Regency Hotel in Accra.

Making reference to the 1992 constitution, he stated that there are laws that protect an individual in the acquisition of land yet those laws are not well enforced.

He raised concerns on the difficulties individuals face in an attempt to acquire properties adding that lands acquired by the government under the compulsory acquisition law but which are not being utilized should be given back to their traditional owners.

Citing examples he mentioned the operations of land guards, stating that citizens who engage land guards to acquire land unlawfully are breaking the laws of the land.
However the vice President of Imani Ghana Mr. Kofi Bentil in his speech blamed government for problems associated with property rights.

“Our government is the worst offender when it comes to land by commission and omission’’ Kofi Bentil Vice President Imani Ghana said. However he said the problems associated with the acquisition of property could be resolved if institutions such as the land commission, which have been assigned to deal with these problems stand up to their call.

‘Government upon government since independence has used wrong procedures to acquire large tracks of land which have not been utilized and for which payment of compensation had delayed, creating a lot of tension between the state and the expropriated owners.’

Story by Esther Brown/ Xfm 95.1/ Accra/ Ghana