Many Ghanaians want the Constitution reviewed to address concerns of an Overbearing President, a Pliant Judiciary, and a Partisan Parliament.
LAND LOOTING and the phenomenon of Money Laundering using State Lands as currency is one of the key concerns I want to be addressed by the Constitutional Review Process.
Article 20 (5)(6) is very clear on the return of State Acquired Lands to the Original Pre-acquisition Land Owners when the purpose of acquisition changes, however, because of the Supreme Court’s travesty of Justice in their interpretation of the Constitution in the Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III vs Attorney General judgment;
Article 20 (5)(6) will require a REVIEW in lieu of the obvious Judicial Review to remedy the wrongful interpretation of the Constitution which opened the floodgates for the La Land Looting by wrongful interpretation of the Constitution, that “PUBLIC PURPOSE” and “PUBLIC INTEREST” are interchangeably used.
The Supreme Court wrongfully claimed that “PUBLIC PURPOSE” and “PUBLIC INTEREST” mean the same thus the State Lands acquired for specific purposes such as Schools and hospitals can be given to private third parties if they use it for purposes that can be used by the public, such as hotels even if the private third-party is making money from the land while THE ORIGINAL PRE-ACQUISITION LAND OWNERS ARE DEPRIVED OF THEIR LAND AND RENDERED LANDLESS.
The State compulsorily acquired lands for stated purposes including building Bungalows for public sector workers, hospitals, schools, and other national development purposes then allocated these prime lands to private developers, High-profile personalities, government officials, their families, friends, and business associates.
The Lands Commission has been used as a conduit for criminally acquiring State Lands and Bungalows through the Lands Ministry and the Works and Housing Ministry respectively.
Recall that the former Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor lamented on national television that the people who are revered in our society drive around on weekends looking for State Lands and Bungalows with little or no activity and then come to his office to pressure him to allocate these prime lands to them at ridiculous prices.
Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) uncovered a few of these illegal transactions, fraudulent allocations, and outright Looting of State Lands and Bungalows.
The Works and Housing Ministry must immediately publish the status of all State Bungalows while the Lands Ministry publishes the status of all State Acquired Lands stating the instrument of acquisition, size, lease period, compensation payment, and other relevant information.
The Real Estate industry has become a conduit for hiding proceeds of Corruption and Galamsey Money which is Laundered through fraudulent land transactions and allocation of State Lands and Bungalows by the Works and Housing Ministry, Lands Ministry, and the Lands Commission thus making the prime lands the currency of corruption.
ALL LAND TRANSACTIONS ARE REQUIRED BY THE NEW LAND LAW ACT 1036; to be transparent all involved must be accountable.
This legal requirement is to help curb corruption and effectively fight Galamsey while tracking unexplained wealth and money laundering.
All land transactions must be through Banks, IN THE CASE OF LA LANDS MUST BE THROUGH THE LA BANK to guarantee that there is a paper trail or electronic footprint of all Land Transactions as is done at the DVLA in vehicle registration and documentation.
ACT 1036 further requires all Stools to set up Stool Lands Secretariats which must register all its Lands prior to any Land Transaction becoming lawful.
The ACT 1036 further imposes high fines and long terms of imprisonment on any fiduciaries including government officials and Chiefs who infringe on the new Land Law.
THE REVIEWED CONSTITUTION MUST BE EXPLICIT ON THE ROLE OF PARLIAMENT IN MONITORING AND DEMANDING PROPRIETARY USE AND MANAGEMENT OF STATE-ACQUIRED LANDS as it is explicitly stated in the case of Forest and Mineral Resources.
President John Dramani Mahama’s RESET OF LANDS acquired by the State that is in the name of the Foreign Affairs Ministry is very refreshing and must be extended to cover all State Acquired Lands allocated to all State Institutions for specific purposes that have been altered or allocated to third parties.
The directive by President John Dramani Mahama to the Lands Commission to halt all sales and transactions including compensation payments pending investigation must be commended.
President John Dramani Mahama has set the tone for a comprehensive RESET through the Review of the Constitution and all must take advantage of the opportunity to make input into a new Constitution that will be the Supreme Law of Ghana and remove ambiguity in interpretation by the Supreme Court.
Power emanates from the People who are the Sovereign and on whose behalf the three arms of government act.
The People of Ghana will watch live on Television the sittings of the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into the Looted Stolen State Lands, Bungalows, and Expropriation of GaDangme Lands promised by President John Dramani Mahama.
The President of Ghana is clothed with the Executive Authority of Ghana and exercises the Executive Power per the Constitution, which includes appointing persons into various executive positions including the position of IGP and heads of the Security Services; as he has done recently.
The IGP in turn can reshuffle the Police High Command including the head of the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) ahead of the Attorney-General starting prosecution of the extremely large number of Looters, Plunderers, and Lauderers fingered in the numerous Corruption and Galamsey cases under investigation.
The Police CID, EOCO, FIC, BNI, and OSP will have to investigate and build dockets for each of these cases so the Fast Track Public Tribunals and Courts can start hearing the cases…
ORAL IS PAPPING.
Let’s all including the Pseudo Neutrals CSOs and IMANIman guys get involved in chasing the Land Looters, Money Launderers, Galamseyers, and Plunderers of the Public Purse.
LET’S RESET GHANA TOGETHER.
#TimeNoDey
By Prince-Derek Adjei