Story: News Desk

Minority members on the Lands and Forestry Committee of Parliament have accused the government of engaging the services of land guards to retrieve and protect government lands.

The group said the Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Professor Patrick Agbesinyale made the revelation during a meeting with the Committee.

Prof. Agbesinyale according to the Minority claimed that even the police and military engaged a land guard in reclaiming and protecting government lands at a fee contrary to the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act.

Addressing the media, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Lands and Forestry Committee of Parliament, Alhassan Suhuyini bemoaned the lack of commitment on the part of the government to combat land guard activities.

“One would have thought that with the passage of this law to outlaw land guards, our land tenure system would have been sanitized, and we would have all been hopeful that acquiring land will no longer be a matter of life and death and so it came to us as a surprise that the Ministry has resorted to contracting a land guard to protect government lands.”

“The other shocking revelation according to the Chief Director is that even the Ghana Armed Forces and the Police use this same land guard to protect their lands. So, if the military and the police cannot protect their own lands and have to resort to the use of a land guard, then what will be the fate of the common Ghanaian who wants to acquire land and is faced with land guards?”

“What was again scandalous by the Chief Directors’ revelation is that this particular land guard has a set-up the state cannot compete,” Mr. Suhuyini added while asking for investigations to be launched to unravel the dealings of this land guard as it is alleged his actions have led to some death.