Captain (Rtd) Nkrabea Effah-Dartey
Private legal practitioner, Captain (Rtd) Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, has stated that the Achimota Forest land contained in the will of the late former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu, popularly known as Sir John, will be valid if it is a self-acquired property.
According to him, such self-acquired property can be bequeathed, pointing out that the country needs to firstly establish whether lands claimed by Sir John are part of the ones that were given to the chiefs or part of the state lands.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has frozen the assets of the late Sir John, as part of its investigations into suspected corruption-related offences.
The OSP issued the sanctions notice against the assets in respect of alleged improper acquisition of state lands within the Achimota Forest and some Ramsar sites in Accra.
Reacting to the issue, Mr. Effah-Dartey, who is a former Deputy Minister of Interior in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, said there appears to be confusion on the Achimota Forest lands, asserting, “Various governments of Ghana especially the era of Kufuor asked that some of the lands be given back to the chiefs.”
He told Atinka FM last Thursday that “the question here is, are Sir John’s lands part of the ones given to the chiefs or part of the state lands? We must be sure first.”
For him, the statement by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources created the impression that the Achimota lands are solely for government, intimating that clarity must sought first to be able to address the issue well.
The late Sir John was said to have bequeathed to his family and loved ones large parcels of land he owned at the Achimota Forest and the Sakumono Ramsar site.
Corruption Watch subsequently petitioned the OSP to investigate the alleged acquisition of state lands within the Achimota Forest and Ramsar sites in Sakumono by three artificial persons, namely Jakaypros Limited, Fasoh Limited, DML Limited, and two people whose names were given as Charles Owusu, an officer of the Forestry Commission and the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, ex-CEO of the Commission.
The acquisition was said to have taken place between March 2017 and July 2020, during which the late CEO of the Forestry Commission was in office.
The OSP announcement of investigation came after the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, proclaimed publicly that his ministry had opened an investigation into claims that the late Sir John included some portions of the Achimota Forest in his will.
“The attention of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has been drawn to a document making the rounds on social media, which alleges that the late former Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, had included portions of the Achimota Forest in his will, and given out same to individuals who are said to be related to him,” the minister said in a statement.
It continued, “The Ministry takes a very serious view of the allegations, and has requested for all documents relating to the lands in question, as part of an initial inquiry to ascertain the veracity of the claims.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu