DEMOLITION ALERT: All private buildings on gov’t lands to go down

Any and every private construction, be it temporal or permanent, on Government lands in any part of the country would be demolished completely and flattened in the coming weeks, Deputy Minister for Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah  has disclosed.

Encroachers and occupants of such buildings illegally erected on State lands would only be given quit notices ahead on the demolition to be done without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah noted.

Some of such notices have already been served and the respective Municipal Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) that have such unlawfully occupied State lands is lacing boots to commence demolition operations

“People have become so emboldened to take over State property at will. We can’t allow that and those guilty of this must be prepared to face it”, the Deputy Minister noted.

Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah was speaking during an official tour of the encroached Government lands in the Western, Central and Greater Accra Regions.

 The Deputy Minister  served notice that the Ministry would employ all means possible to reclaim back all stolen lands that belongs to Government as soon as possible for the institutions to be able to do their work.

He lamented over the growing penchant for illegal takeover of designated lands for Government organizations for private use.

The Deputy Minister said the illegality is overly alarming and has vowed to reclaim all encroached lands belonging to Agencies under his ministry, mainly the Parks and Gardens and Community and Vocational Institutes

He expressed shock that the respective MMDAs in whose geographic areas these illegal encroachments are being perpetrated have allowed it to continue unabated.

Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah further indicated that the Sector Minister, Hon. Dan Botwe takes a very serious view of this phenomenon and has vowed the trend shall be reversed with a sense of urgency.

With him on the tour are the National and Regional Director Directors of the two government agencies and officials from the Ministry.

The tour took him to Axim, Takoradi, Tarkwa, Cape Coast and Accra.

 A similar tour was recently embarked on by the Deputy Minister to some parts of the country to inspect to among others, check the rate of progress of ongoing government projects.

The Ministry has since terminated the contracts of several non-performing contractors some on whom had even abandoned sites and putting the projects in jeopardy to the detriment of the taxpayer.