Old students of Achimota School has sent an SOS message to President John Mahama and the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, to intervene in bringing to an end the encroachment of the school lands by some individuals and estate developers.
They want the President and the Speaker to immediately order security agencies to secure the geographic boundaries of the Achimota School and as well place a moratorium on all sales, development and registration of the school lands.
They also want President Mahama and Rt. Hon. Adjaho, to undertake a survey and clearly demarcate the boundaries of Achimota School lands.
That aside, the Old Students body wants the Speaker to conduct an urgent public inquiry and investigate the sale, encroachment and theft of Achimota School lands in order to determine the history of such activity and prevent further encroachment and illegal sale activity.
Petitioning the Speaker in Accra on Tuesday, Eric Afram, a member of the Achimota Old Students Associataion, said the steps they are taking have become necessary because the encroachment of the school lands is a threat to the future generations.
“In the past decade and a half, this land, acquired by the state expressly for the public benefit, has been placed under very severe threat. Private developers have targeted the lands designated as Achimota School land to the detriment of the school’s capacity to meet the diverse needs of its ever growing body of students.”
“The Parliament of Ghana and the courts have been involved in efforts to arrest the situation but these efforts appear to have yielded little positive impact. To the contrary, as we speak, developers are now encroaching on inhabited school land which is presently the site of two staff bungalows. These developers – as yet to be identified, have ordered the School’s teachers who are residents of the bungalows to vacate the bungalows so that they can begin demolition of Achimota School’s buildings. We need to act now to stop the illegal encroachment activity immediately,” he bemoaned.
The petition was received by the Head, Parliamentary Relations & Protocol, Richard Acheampong and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikwei North, Elizabeth Sackey, on behalf of the Speaker.
Copies of the petition were also sent to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive and the Chief Executive of the Lands Commission to also help put an end to the encroachment of the Achimota School lands.
For instance, the group is demanding from the Attorney-General to rigorously enforce the Public Lands (Protection) Decree, 1974 (N. R. C. D. 240), and any amendments thereto, and take legal action against developers and other parties that have illegally encroached or sold Achimota School land.
In the case of the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, the group wants him to immediately cease the issuance of permits to developers for illegal construction or development activity on Achimota School lands.
They also want the Chief Executive of the Lands Commission to direct the Land Registration Division to immediately cease the registration of any illegal purchases of Achimota School lands and decline future applications for registration of Achimota lands under the terms of the Land Title Registration Act 1986 (PNDCL 152).
“We are acting to protect the legacy of the Founders of Achimota School to ensure that the land that they acquired for educational purposes are held for such purpose in these times and future years to benefit current and future generations of students,” the petitioners noted.
By: Kasapafmonline.com/Ghana
