Who Owns Achimota Forest Reserve Land In Accra? ...Osu State or Owoo Family of Gbese; Ghanaians Want To Know Details
There is a current growing phenomenon of the big brouhaha between the members of the Owoo family of Gbese and the people of Osu State in the Greater Accra Region over the claim of the ownership of Achimota Forest Reserve.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
There is a current growing phenomenon of the big brouhaha between the members of the Owoo family of Gbese and the people of Osu State in the Greater Accra Region over the claim of the ownership of Achimota Forest Reserve.
The ownership claim of the two factions or gates from the Ga State has confused many Ghanaians, particularly the citizens of Accra, making them ask who owns the Achimota Forest reserve land, is it the Osu state or Owoo Family of Gbese in Ga Mashie.?
The Osu state has laid claim to the Achimota forest and insisted the Owoo Family cannot claim ownership of the woodland.
The Secretary to the Osu Stool, Nii Otinkorang Ankrah, during an interview on Starr FM monitored by Soireenews.com stated categorically that they already have a judgment in their favor against the Lands Commission in respect of the Achimota Forest.
The stool argues that it is the rightful owner of the land on which the forest sits and not the Owoo family.
The spokesperson of the Osu stool notes that: “We, as the custodians of the Osu stool, ceded those lands for the Achimota School as well as the Achimota Forest and after we realized that there was some encroachment, we wrote to the then-minister for a release.”
“It never happened and we took it to court in 2011 and we again went to court in 2014 over the same issue: that is Nii Ako Nortei, that’s the Regent of Osu v. the Lands Commission”, he noted.
Mr. Ankrah said: “Judgment was granted. The Owoos and everybody appealed and they lost then it was time for the implementation, which never happened, so, we also tried negotiating with the government on those issues”.
“As it didn’t happen, we also relaxed, then three days [ago], we got to hear that per EI 144, it has been released to the Owoo family”, he complained.
“That is why we also had to get up and let the government know that it hasn’t treated us fairly”, Mr. Ankrah said.
He added: “We are not for the selling of the land, we are ready for Achimota to be used as a forest but if it’s being released, it should be released to the rightful owners.”
However, the Soireenews com has learned that the Achimota Forest was gazetted in 1930 by Ghana’s colonial authorities as a reserve.
Following several encroachments on the Forest Reserve, the pre-acquisition owners, the Owoo Family, 2007, submitted a petition to the then President, H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, for the release of the portion of the Forest Reserve adjoining the Tema motorway.
After consultations between the Office of the President and the relevant bodies, it was recommended that that portion of the Forest Reserve be released to the Owoo Family.
This culminated in an Agreement dated 24th November 2008 between the Government, acting by the then Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines, and the Owoo Family for the grant of a lease over ninety (90) acres of the land to the Owoo Family for a term of ninety-nine (99) years. The Lease agreement was however not executed as agreed.
In 2011, the Owoo Family, submitted another petition to the then Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Honourable Mike Hammah, for the grant of portions of the Forest Reserve.
The Minister constituted a committee, chaired by the then Chairman of the then Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Mr. Samuel Afari Dartey, to inquire into the legitimacy of the request and its impact on the Forest Reserve.
The Committee after its investigations concluded that the request of the Owoo Family was legitimate.
The Minister then sought executive approval to implement the recommendations of the Committee.
On 5th September 2013, the then President of the Republic, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, gave Executive Approval for the conversion of the Forest Reserve into an Ecotourism Park, and to release the peripheral portions of the Forest Reserve to the Owoo Family, following the recommendations of the Committee.
According to the said Executive Approval, the Forestry Commission, acting on behalf of the then President, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, three (3) leases executed in September 2013, granted these portions of the Forest Reserve to the Owoo Family for a term of ninety-nine (99) years.
The Family then registered the land in its name and granted sub-leases to other private developers with the consent of the Forestry Commission. However, because the land remained a Forest Reserve, under Order 31 of 1930, the lessees and sub-lessees could not develop the land, although they had obtained all the necessary permits.
According to the same Executive Approval, the Forestry Commission, acting on behalf of the then President of the Republic, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, agreed with Aiken Capital, a limited liability company for the development of the core area of the Forest into an Ecotourism Park.
The Commission also executed a lease agreement with the company in February 2016, by which 227.84 hectares of the Forest Reserve were leased to the company to undertake the planned development.
The Owoo Family and their grantees, in a bid to develop the peripheral portions of the land which had already been granted to them, continued to petition Government to release the peripheral portions as a Forest Reserve.
The government decided to release the peripheral portions of the land from the Forest Reserve after reviewing the situation and receiving advice from the Forestry Commission that the release would not jeopardize the Forest Reserve’s ecological integrity.
This led to the publication of the two instruments, the Forests (Cessation of Forest Reserve) Instrument, 2022 (E.I 144), and the Forests (Achimota Firewood Plantation Forest Reserve) (Amendment) Instrument, 2022 (E.I. 154).
The first makes the peripheral portions of the Forest Reserve, which had already been granted to the Owoo Family in 2013, with portions developed, cease to be a Forest Reserve. The second amends the area of the land that should continue as a Forest Reserve.
However, as part of measures to ensure that the area of the Forest is not compromised, both Instruments contain provisions that restrict the nature of the development that can take place on the land.
Under E.I. 144, before any development can take place on the peripheral portions of the Forest that has ceased to be a Forest Reserve, the Land Use and Spatial Authority shall prepare a Master Plan for the development of the area, taking into consideration the ecological integrity of the remaining portions of the Forest Reserve.
Meanwhile, the elders of the Owoo family, have said they have never been compensated for the acquisition of the sprawling land by the government almost a century ago.
The family, in a statement, also said no parcel of forest reserve land had ever been released to them as claimed by some critics publicly.
“The much-talked-about 19th August 2016 ceremony, which has been erroneously stated in the public as an occasion when the land was released to the Owoo family, is false and misleading. That ceremony was a sod-cutting ceremony for the development of the Achimota Forest into an Eco-Tourism park. The Owoo families were mere invitees/guests”, the principal elders said in a statement.
It follows ongoing discussions about the government’s recent reclassification of 361 acres of land on the peripheries of the forest reserve, thus, paving the way for development activities to take place on those properties.
At a press conference on Tuesday, 17 May 2022, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Samuel Jinapor, said the government is returning 361 acres of land on the peripheries of the forest reserve in the national capital, to the custodial owners, since those lands have not been used for their intended purpose.
There were speculations that the government had sold the forest reserve following the issuance of an Executive Instrument, E.I. 144, which declassified portions of the Achimota Forest as a reserve.
However, Mr. Jinapor explained that the E.I. affects only 361 acres of forest reserve lands that, among others, were supposed to have been used for various purposes by the government, one being the extension of the Achimota School.
Mr. Jinapor noted that the Owoo family’s quest to repossess its lands started from the Kufuor administration in 2007 when they petitioned the President for the state to release that part of the Forest Reserve adjoining the Tema motorway, to them.
A similar petition, Mr. Jinapor noted, was also filed in 2011 by the family and was granted in 2013 after consultations and inquiries.
Denying claims that the entire forest reserve was being sold, Mr. Jinapor explained at the press conference that E.I. 144 was accompanied by a separate one, E.I. 154, which states “emphatically the area of the forest shall remain a Forest Reserve.”
“What E.I. 144 does is to make the peripheral portions of the Forest Reserve, which had already been granted to the Owoo Family in September 2013, portions of which have already been developed, cease to be a forest reserve, to ensure a development that is consistent with the area of the forest reserve,” Mr. Jinapor explained further.
Mr. Jinapor said “both instruments contain adequate provisions that seek to protect the ecological integrity of the Forest Reserve.”, adding: “The government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, will continue to protect the Achimota Forest and prevent it from being further encroached.”
In its statement, the Owoo Family said it “has always maintained that compensation has not been paid for the 1927 acquisition”, adding: “The acreage due the Owoo family was arrived at through a long-standing negotiation which, in many respects, predates the current administration. This was done with the active involvement of various State technical negotiators and agencies”.
The Owoo family said it “has petitioned all governments in the fourth republican dispensation and, indeed, is yet to take possession of any parcel of land to date”.
Read the Owoo family’s full statement below:
RE: ACHIMOTA FOREST AND MATTERS ARISING
We, the Owoo Family, have restrained ourselves from participating in the ongoing debate as a result of good advice and judgment.
We, however, reluctantly wish to set a few records straight as follows:
1. The Owoo Family, the pre-acquisition owners, of all the land acquired in 1921 and 1927 for the Achimota School, have suffered grave historical injustice;
2. The family has had to, in the past, accept and/or acquiesce to terms to enable it to move on which it strongly believes have been unfair and unjust;
3. The much-talked-about 19th August 2016 ceremony, which has been erroneously stated in the public as an occasion when the land was released to the Owoo family, is false and misleading. That ceremony was a sod-cutting ceremony for the development of the Achimota Forest into an Eco-Tourism park. The Owoo families were mere invitees/guests;
4. The Owoo Family has always maintained that compensation has not been paid for the 1927 acquisition; and
5. The acreage due to the Owoo family was arrived at through a long-standing negotiation that, in many respects, predates the current administration. This was done with the active involvement of various State technical negotiators and agencies.
The Owoo family has petitioned all governments in the fourth republican dispensation and, indeed, is yet to take possession of any parcel of land to date.
We commit to conducting ourselves in a manner that will not compromise the ecological integrity of the adjoining forest reserve and call on the general public to please disregard any misleading contributions to the ongoing public discussions.
END
John Quartey Nee Owoo
Francis Kwatei Nee Owoo
Nii Kwate Owoo
George Kwatey Owoo
Frank Nii Kwartey Owoo
Nat Holly Nii Owoo
George Annan Owoo.
PRINCIPAL ELDERS
OWOO FAMILY
