Land undermining Chieftaincy? La – A Classic Case Study
ALL LA LANDS WERE ACQUIRED BY CONQUEST.
La has one Stool, one Chief called the La Mantse enstooled by the La Dzasetse.
The La Dzasetse who is the custodian of the La Stool upon which the La Mantse ascends to rule La, is installed by the Kowe Akutsotse or head of the La Royal Families.
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The La State has subdivisions called Akutsei which also have Clan Houses and Villages called Akrowai.
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Unfortunately, the lands are sold at the base, the Akrowai by the caretakers or headmen who have been designated as Village Chief or Akrowa Mantse sometimes without recourse to the top including the Akutso or the Stool.
The wealth of the La Stool including its Lands and Beaches have been highjacked at the base…
The Mantse, who embodies the Executive Authority of the Stool must apply the Seal of the Stool to authenticate any Land transaction involving any La Land entered into by any of the Akrowai or Akutsei which must be captured by the Stool Lands Secretariat and payments made into a dedicated Stool Lands Account lodged at the La Bank.
The La Bank by an agreed sharing formula make appropriate payments into accounts of all beneficiaries in the transaction.
Unfortunately, the Authority and Structure of the La Stool and the La State are being undermined from within and also externally so the La Lands can be looted…
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
If the Mantse installed by the Dzasetse becomes La Mantse how then does the Dzasetse remain Kowe Dzasetse and not La Dzasetse;
Is the Shikitele then by inference the Nmati Shikitele and the Mankralo the Sanshi Mankralo?
On what basis does the Akwashongtse claim that the La Dzasenye installed by the La Dzasetse is a Kowe Dzasenye; but for an ill-informed letter.
QUESTION:
Does the customary installation of a Traditional Officeholder get elevated or lowered by virtue of a ill-informed letter or a misguided utterance?
FACT:
Customary Laws and Usage are together with the institution of Chieftaincy guaranteed by the Constitution of Ghana.
The lack of codification of Customary Laws, Usages and Traditional Officeholders does not in any way render them void…
Unlike Traditional Councils which are Statutory;
Stool and Skins as captured in the Constitution of Ghana are unique to Traditional Areas and Traditional Authorities.
Stools and Skins are EXCLUSIVELY reserved to specific groups ONLY that can enstooled or enskinned PER THEIR LINEAGE AND BLOODLINE as prescribed by the Constitution of Ghana.
THE CONSTITUTION OF GHANA IS VERY SPECIFIC;
“A person can only be enstooled or enskinned if they hail from the appropriate family lineage and bloodline”;
NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS.
Most people are misrepresenting themselves as Chiefs or Traditional Officeholders and defrauding innocent persons particularly potential Land purchasers…
The various arms of government are complicit in the ongoing Land Looting;
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The Executive, Legislture and Judiciary as well as Media and Security Services are guilty in the unfolding Land Grabbing.
Similarly, the President as Trustee of State Acquired Lands, acting through the Lands Minister and the Works & Housing Minister.
The Land Law ACT 1036 has made it mandatory for all fiduciaries to be accountable and transparent in all Land Transactions or risk stiff fines and long terms of imprisonment.
The specific case of La Stool Lands in Airport, Legon, Cantonments and Labone; it is alleged that State Lands and Bungalows have been fraudulently allocated at ridiculous prices to third-party including State Actors, their families, friends and business associates instead of returning these lands to the La Stool.
Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo is alleged to have paid GHc7000 for prime Cantonments State Land worth millions.
There is a long list of Land Looters complete with particulars of the hundreds of Looting transactions attached to the Article 146 Petition for the removal of Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo which President Akufo-Addo refused to act on despite being said to be only a conveyor belt in such Article 146 Petition cases.
President Akufo-Addo must be compelled to publish the status of all State Acquired Lands and Bungalows.
In fact, his Lands Minister Samuel Abu Jinapor has 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 then come to his office to pressure him to allocate these prime lands to them.
The government must disclose the names of all beneficiaries of these allocations and begin the process of retrieving these State Acquired Lands and Bungalows.
The Land Law ACT 1036 makes it an imperative for all Lands to be registered prior to any transaction; to wit, all Stool Lands to be registered by their respective Stool Lands Secretariats prior to any Land Transaction becoming lawful.
WAY FORWARD:
All land transactions involving any part of the La Lands must be halted until the La Stool sets up the LA STOOL LANDS SECRETARIAT and duly registers these lands.
The La Stool Lands Secretariat must have digitized records of all La Lands and a shared database with the Lands Commission…
Concurrent approval of all Land Transactions must be done by the La Stool Lands Secretariat and the Lands Commission with all levels of signatures from the Akrowa to Akutso before the Seal of the La Mantse is applied to finalize the transaction…
I recommend as a further layer, in the specific case of La whose Stool Lands have suffered the most Looting, expropriation and fraudulent allocations by the State through the Trustees of State Lands.
The recommendation is for the mandatory payment of all money and thus documentation relating to any La Land must commence and terminate at the LA BANK.
The La Bank must keep the paper trail or electronic footprint of all Land Transactions.
There is precedent in the DVLA, commencing all documentation with payment through a designated bank to avoid corruption, ensure paper trail or electronic footprint of all transactions.
The La Community Bank was set up by La Intelligentia through the La Masaamo Kpei with many La indegene holding shares.
The La Community Bank over the decades has grown from its humble beginnings into a multi branch bank under the supervision of a capable board of prominent La Citizens and the Bank of Ghana.
The La Community Bank branches can grow exponentially with its designation as the Bank for La Land Transactions immediately improving its portfolio and volume of business, liquidity…
LA CAN AND MUST BECOME A PERFECT PILOT OF CHIEFTAINCY AND LAND ADMINISTRATION.
END OF PART-1
By Prince-Derek Adjei
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