Accra Land Disputes Would Be Solved If Judicial Service Work With Ga-Dangme Lands Administration—King Nii Aryee Tunnmaa II

INDIGENOUS Chief of Defense of the Ga State who doubles as Founder and President of the Ga-Dangme Lands Administration (GDLA), "King Ayi Aryee Tunnmaa II, has stated that it is a high time for Judicial Service of Ghana to joins forces with the GDLA to address the long unending land litigations and corrupt practices in the land tenure system in the Greater Accra Region.

According to "King Tunnmaa II, they have realized that the effective working collaboration between the GDLA and Judicial Service of Ghana would help identify the root causes of land litigation and the rightful possessors of individual family lands which would also ensure social injustices as well as advocate accountability in governance at all levels in the Ga-Dangme Kingdom.

As the Indigenous Chief of Defence of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom, King Tunnma II,was of view that although the leadership of GDLA has made several attempt to the Judicial Service to the work with the GDLA it is clearly shows that the Judicial is not respecting the authorities of the GDLA which was made up of the allodial owners of the Greater Accra Region namely, the Overlords, Kings, Chiefs and Queen mothers and Heads of Family.

He pointed out that the Tunnmaa, the first dynasty and kingdom of the Greater Accra Region, Bump Gborbu Wulomo of Nungua (Setse) Bae Wulomo (Setse) and Asere Clan are the allodial owners of the lands in the region and that the time has come for the Judicial Service to work closely with these families to promote peace and development in the Ga State.

He expressed misgivings that the authori­ties of the four Overlords of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom have not been treated well so far as Greater Accra Region tenure system is concerned.

He indicated that "When it comes to the land tenure system in the Greater Accra Region, we believe that the various land documents that were in the possession of four Overlords of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom indicate that that almost 99% of leasehold has expired.

But, according to him, these land developers including government institutions in the region have woefully failed to renew their lease hold with the allodial owners of these lands, the development which has breeding corruption in the land tenure system in the Ga State.

The inability of these land developers to renew their expired lease hold, he stressed has informed decision of the four overlords of the Greater Accra Region to establish GDLA to work in collaboration with the government of Ghana Land Administration to ensure or determine who is the allodial owner of the lands in the region and the beneficiaries within the people of Ga-Dangme.

A leasehold is an accounting term that refers to an asset or property that a lessee (tenant) contracts to rent from a lessor (property owner) for an agreed-upon time in exchange for scheduled payments.

According to "King’ Ayi Tunnmaa II, for the decades we have even written letters and public notices to the government officials in the land tenure system and asked the officials to sit down with GDLA to analyze the matter, but the government has not responded to their letters.

Being law abiding citizens who respect the laws of the land, he started that they had also petitioned the successive presidents in this regard but yet still there justice has not prevailed in these matters.

"So now we want justice to prevail by way of making the Greater Accra land transaction litigation free. This is because the intelligence gathered from our domain indicates that the chieftaincy disputes, land litigations and land-guardism which involves the employment of thugs to protect lands, are affecting the development our families and with this land Guardism–a menace that must be confronted head if the judicial Service of Ghana works in collaboration with the four Overlords of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom.

"But l believe that these aforementioned families have not been treated well at all by the public irrespective of the central government and some personel such as private business men, etc.

"We the allodial owners of the Greater Accra lands are saying that it is the time the truth must prevail. We have in our hands of the valied documents of archives from British Council that our ancestors left records for us.

"... and we want the whole world to know that the city of Ghana, Accra belonged to a particular family.

This family is the traditional government by Tunnmaa, the first dynasty Kingdom of Accra with it siblings, Nii Quaye Laryea Asere, Nai Wulomo as a high chief Priest of the Ga State and Borketey Larweh also a high chief priest of the Ga State and these priests are working and ready to work with the government and judicial service to bring sanity to the people in the Ga-Dangme communities," he explained.

However, mincing no word, King’ Ayi Tunnmaa II lamented that the judicial service has not fair to the allodial owners of the lands in the Ga State.

"We are saying the Judicial Service has not been fair to them because for almost 25 to 26 months now that they had officially written a letter to the Judicial Service and requested the two bodies to come together to identify the root causes of land litigation and the rightful possessors of individual family lands but no response from from the judicial service," the chief noted.

He asserted that they have paid huge sums of money to push the sending of various land documents and information to the public to create awareness, but nobody has responded  also to their notice of information to the public.

He stressed that they have strong belief that the long unending land ligations can be easily solved if the Judicial Service is ready to work in collaboration with four Overlords of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom.

"We are of strong opinion that we can amicably solve the ongoings land litigation matters of 99 per cent and bring peace in the Ga State if the judicial service is ever ready to work with Ga four Overlords of the Ga-Dangme Kingdom. Because GDLA is the indigenous founder of the Greater Accra Region having known all the families that must be represented any land within the Greater Accra Region," King’ Ayi Tunnmaa II explained.

Answering question expiration of the lease hold of most of the lands being leased to the private developers and station institutions, King’ Ayi Tunnmaa II responded that that was of the reasons the GDAL has been formed and that they have gathered these intelligence of about these matters.

He noted that being the law abiding citizens, the GDAL Secretariat has written letters to the various private land developers and the central government institutions in the land tenure systems to response to the issues of their expiration of their leasehold so that they can speak one-on-one to bring sanity in land businesses in the Ga State.

On the lease hold matters, he noted that the government institutions had not responded to the GDAL as "l speak to the journalists."

"We are advising the general public, especially the Judicial Service, Lands Commission of Ghana, state security agencies that they must take note and observe the GDLA to work hands and hands so that there must be a peaceful coexistence in the Ga State, King’ Ayi Tunnmaa II advised.

On the establishment of GDLA, the prominent Ga Traditional ruler noted that the GDLA is a traditional body with administrative professionals with disciplines in the judicial system, safety and security, civil intelligence, crime research, ecology management, land administration with the objective of promoting development in the region.

The organisation, which is duly registered under the laws of the country, he noted, has worked to unite the Traditional Authorities, Chiefs and Heads of Family and Clans to promote justice, fairness and equity at all levels on Ga-Dangme land, and ensure equal access to justice for all.

He stated that the body has fashioned out policies and mech­anisms in consultation with all traditional and state stakeholders for proper and lawful acquisition of Ga-Dangme lands to ensure that the roots of possession were from the rightful allodial owners of the lands.

He said the or­ganisation is also working to address all compulsory acquisitions and divested lands that have been hijacked by some unscrupulous individuals with the view to getting them returned back to the rightful owners through appro­priate means by 2025.

He noted the traditional body is also working towards eliminating corrupt Heads of Family and Chiefs within the Ga-Dangme Kingdom in all their multifaceted forms, and collaborate with the govern­ment security agencies to elimi­nate land guard activities within the Ga-Dangme lands by 2025.

Following this development, the King called on all cit­izens of Ga-Dangme Kingdom to come on board to ensure the success of GDLA and put the region on the path of economic growth