The owners of the properties which were demolished by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) at Tse-Addo in the East Dadekotopon area in Accra will hand over their lands, if the military is willing to adequately compensate them, an affected land owner, Harrison Tetteyfio, has said.
They indicated that the Army would have to pay the affected land owners about $600 million for the land excluding the erected properties.
Harrison Tetteyfio in an interview on Eyewitness News said: “If the government wants to pay for just the cost of these lands, we are looking at over $600 million before the cost of the properties on the land will even kick in.”
Their demand comes on the back of a directive issued by the Attorney General (AG) ordering the GAF to commence a formal process through the Ministry of Defense for the compulsory acquisition of the 2456.55 acres and pay prompt and adequate compensation to the current owners of the land.
The AG also ordered the army to stop using force to eject the land owners from the area.
Harrison Tetteyfio said the AG’s directive is welcome news saying, “we are happy that this has come in because some members have already gone to court, there are more legal actions that we are planning on taking on the army for the destructions that they have done because they have to compensate.”
According to him, some of the affected land owners had their businesses affected when the unauthorized demolition took place and subsequently had calls from their bankers “because they have seen their properties in the news as being part of this dispute which is not a dispute really. It’s just the army trying to take our land from us without due process.”
He however stressed that until the said processes ordered by the AG are completed, “we want everybody to stay clear off the land and let the legal owners of these properties to go on with the business of developing their land.”
He said the said armouries that the military claims it’s protecting civilians from exist among the military personnel and their civilian families including children who school within the Burma Camp enclave so “if these civilians are okay to live on the property, then we are also okay to live on our leally acquired lands.”
But Harrison Tetteyfio added that although they are unwilling to let go of their legally acquired properties, they will let go of them if it’s the will of the state and the appropriate laws are passed.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana