Accra, March 3, 2018//-Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agricultural (MoFA) has warned persons occupying its lands illegally to vacate or face forceful eviction and demolition in the coming days.
The Ministry last week embarked on a similar exercise which saw the destruction of over 100 structures at Nungua, a suburb of Accra.
According to the Ministry, the action has become necessary after several failed attempts to get the illegal occupants out.
The sector minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto told Joy News the Ministry would stop at nothing until it reclaims all its properties.
“Individuals who have encroached on MoFA lands are being advised to vacate instantly to avoid any unforeseen circumstances,” the Minister said.
The lands, when reclaimed will be put to their original use, this includes the establishment of demonstration farms of national service personnel as well as research demonstration plots for the development of Ghana’s agriculture sector.
“The exercise forms part of a move to meet the accommodation needs of the staff of the Ministry. The Ministry is, therefore, sending strong caution to groups and individuals buying or selling government lands, especially those belonging to this ministry to desist from the act or face the full rigours of the law,” Dr Afriyie Akoto said.
Those who refuse to heed to this caution, he indicated, will have no one but themselves to blame when drastic actions are taken against them.
There is, however, amnesty for certain categories of developments on the lands.
These include lands at Pokuase which the Ministry has seeded to the CSIR for their research but parts have heavily encroached so much so that “if you decide to bulldoze, you’ll need all the bulldozers in Africa to do the job.
“So we have to go through the right process…so that is a different story from the places where settlements are sprouting and they are illegal. We need to squash them off,” he added.
Myjoyonline
