Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, is demanding that former President John Dramani Mahama vacates his residence reportedly sited on a military land.
According to Mr. Nitiwul, top officials of the erstwhile Mahama administration sold lands belonging to the Ghana Armed Forces to cronies.
[contextly_sidebar id=”rTFm3rurAST6z4asO3LFqxoBcoqy14tl”]A visibly angry Nitiwul, further indicated that, the Military’s financial matters were handled abysmally under the erstwhile administration.
“Top officials who are supposed to have provided and covered the Armed Forces, were now writing to the Armed Forces to say that if you have no money, then release the lands to the owners. Not knowing they were buying the lands themselves. How can you do this? I want to advise the former President that he should look for a place and leave…It is not good for him because he was a President. He should not live there. I am not satisfied with the state of that land, and I will advise the former President to leave that place because it is not good. He should have protected the Armed Forces, but today if you are living in that area you are giving others the impetus to do what they are doing and it is not good for us.”
“I am talking about the former President, John Mahama. I will say no more, but I am very disturbed about this. It is happening in Tamale, it is happening in Takoradi and Lands Commission is colluding to do that. People in Lands Commission were selling Armed Forces lands. Not under this watch, that cannot happen any longer, and anybody who decides to encroach on Armed Forces lands should leave. It is not in your interest. I am sorry; but that is the truth that we did not manage the Armed Forces lands very well” he noted.
Mr. Nitiwul, who was speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, added that “It may be true or may not be true, because we are still investigating that some portions of that land has not been acquired, but Armed Forces does not have money to acquire. It is the duty of government to acquire the land for the Armed Forces, and I think that the way Armed Forces lands were handled, I am not happy about it. That we decided to sell that land to ourselves, including top politicians, and I think it is a shame that we did that, because now we have squeezed our Armed Forces in Burma Camp, and I think that if I had my will, and we are still going by it because we are in a democracy, I would have gone after those people.”
“It is not good. Within two years, we have sold every piece of land. Over 300 acres of land to individuals; so that what happens? It is the duty of government to acquire the lands for Armed Forces.”
There have been controversies about how military lands are often encroached upon by individuals.
Politicians have also been accused of selling state lands to themselves over the past years.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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