Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor has described as misleading, claims that the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has rejected portions of the new lands Act.
The law which was passed this year puts the traditional authority in a fiduciary role over lands and empowers subjects to demand accountability over the use of proceeds from land sale.
But the Asantehene, at a meeting between the Ashanti Region House of Chiefs and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, stated areas under his leadership are exempt in the application of the Act.
According to him, the Asante Kingdom has its own systems of accountability over the sale of land which they hold in trust for his office.
But Mr Jinapor tells JoyNews that Asantehene’s concerns does constitute rejection.
“I explained that first of all when you read the Act as a whole, the Act defines who can mount an action first of all. Number two the Act also enjoins anybody who wants to go to court to exhaust the internal customary procedures before you can go to court and when it got to Otumfuo’s turn, Otumfuo said look my Chiefs don’t be too worried about this provision because it doesn’t particularly apply in Asanteman because here we account properly for the proceeds of our land administration so the issue of invoking that provision will not even arise in the first place,” he said.
He reiterated that “Otumfuo did not say the sections of that Act does not apply to Asanteman. He didn’t say so.”
According to the Minister, the Asantehene said: “it will not arise any way because here they account for their lands properly.”
“I agree with him totally because the places where I have the least trouble in terms of lands administration is Asanteman, Ashanti Region because the lands are properly managed and the proceeds that come out of the sale of land are accountable,” he said.
GhanaFeed.com
