Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei
The new Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036) has come to offer solutions to the numerous challenges facing the acquisition and ownership of land in the country, a court of appeal judge, Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei has said.
The Act, which has already been passed, makes provisions for chiefs, head of clans and family as well as land owners to be criminally liable for up to 10 years’ imprisonment for actions which negatively affect land acquisition such as indiscriminate deposition of land and multiple sale of land.
New Act
Per the new Act, “a chief, Tendana, head of clan or family in charge of the management of stool, clan or family land who fails to be transparent, fair, open and impartial in matters affecting land under the management of that person commits an offence and upon summary conviction shall be liable to a fine of not less than five thousand penalty units (GH¢60,000.00) and not more than ten thousand penalty units (GH¢120,000.00) or to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years or to both.”
Justice Adjei revealed this when he delivered the 2021 inaugural lecture of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) in Accra.
The lecture was on the topic: “Changing trends in law, policy, governance and management under the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036)” and was attended by the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, Justices of the Superior Courts, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mrs. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, lawyers and law students.
Landguards
According to him, the new Act also criminalises the acts of landguards who do not have interest in land and unlawfully exercise or purport to supervise or control land development and use unlawful means to extort money and other benefits from persons with an interest in land.
It stipulates that landguards who are convicted summarily could face up to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Again, “a person who engages a land guard to unlawfully use force, intimidation or violence to drive another person away from that other person’s land or prevents the other person from having access to that other person’s land commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than ten years and more than fifteen years,” he added.
Errant Public Officers
Justice Adjei also stated that the new Land Act has for the first time prescribed offences for public officers who falsify records, commit fraud through dubious means, fraudulently remove some documents filed from the Lands Commission, fraudulently mutilate, deface or mutilate any document or register, fraudulently make unauthorised entry or alteration.
Such public officials upon conviction shall be liable to a fine not less than one thousand penalty units (GH¢12,000.00) and not more than two thousand penalty units (GH¢24,000.00) or to a term of imprisonment of not less than two years and not more than five years or to both.
Justice Adjei also touched on the history of land laws, with emphasis on customary laws, the laws from the UK which were adopted during the colonial period, and the various statutes on land since independence until finally the enactment of Act 1036.
He said before the enactment of the new Act, there were 16 laws on land, but that Act 1036 had since repealed 13 of them and codified some.
“Act 1036 has made several changes in the existing law including some of the freehold interest, customary tenancies, protection of land and interest in land; accountability for fiduciaries and making them both criminally and civilly liable.
“It has also prohibited discriminatory practices under customary tenure, areas reserved for common use, the meaning and scope of a person who is not a citizen in relation to acquisition of land, and restrictions on property acquired by parties during marriage,” Justice Adjei added.
He further said the Act had placed more responsibilities on chiefs and heads of family who held land in trust for their stools or families.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak