<<Print>>

The mystery surrounding the payment of GH�340,000 land compensation to some unidentified people in 2010 was unravelled at the Judgement Debt Commission sitting in Accra yesterday. The Legal Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr Vincent Mensah Dumoga, told the commission that three families received the GH�340,000 as part payment for their land that the state acquired for the Kpong Irrigation Project in 1995. He gave the names of the families as Dokutsi, Peteye and Atta Abla. Earlier attempts by the commission to establish the identities of the beneficiaries of the GH�340,000 compensation from representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Controller and Accountant-General�s Department and the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission had been unsuccessful. Car Michael compensation Mr Dumoga also answered questions in respect of the $2.4 million compensation paid to the CarMichael Family with regard to the confiscation of the Aveyime Livestock Project. He told the commission that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was not aware of the payment of the $2.4 million compensation to the CarMichael Family. He said he also did not know the reason for the payment of the compensation to the family, since the owners of the land for the livestock project were still pursuing the state for the payment of compensation. Mr Dumoga said following media reports on the payment of the $2.4 to the CarMichael Family in respect of the Aveyime Livestock Project, owners of the land had become agitated and were accusing the ministry of directing their money to the wrong people. At that stage, the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, said the commission was yet to understand why the CarMichael Family was paid the $2.4 million compensation. He, therefore, tasked Mr Dumoga to do some more checks on the project and return to brief the commission on the status of the project and the CarMichael Family. Togbe Sakpilika III A Chief State Attorney, Ms Stella Otema Badu, appeared before the commission in relation to the payment of compensation to Togbe Sakpilika III and two others in 2003. She told the commission that the state had compulsorily acquired land at the Accra Plains from Togbe Sakpilika and others for the Agriculture Development Company in 1977. Ms Badu said after the valuation, which put the value of the land at 14 billion old cedis the state delayed in effecting payment. Thereafter, she said Togbe Sakpilika and the others sought legal remedies and the court ordered the state to pay the amount plus two billion old cedis interest to them. She said representatives of the Attorney-General�s Department negotiated with Togbe Sakpilika and the others to waive the interest and that was agreed upon. Petition A legal practitioner, Mr Nassir Yusif Ishaku, was at the commission to answer questions with regard to the petition his client, Warrant Officer Adjei Boadi, had submitted to the commission on compensation claims. The state acquired land at Budumburam in the Central Region from Warrant Officer Boadi for the settlement of Liberian refugees. After a court order for an out-of-court settlement, the land was valued in 2008 and revalued in 2011, but the state had not paid any compensation to Warrant Officer Boadi. Mr Ishaku told the commission that Warrant Officer Boadi was bedridden and requested the commission to call for a revaluation of the land, since its value had appreciated. Justice Apau directed the counsel for the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sorpkor, to write a letter to the Attorney-General�s Department, copied to the Land Valuation Division and the Ghana Refugees Board, to try to revalue the land and pay compensation to Warrant Officer Boadi. The Sole Commissioner said the laws of the land required of the state to acquire lands when money was available to pay compensation. Otherwise, he said the state ended up paying more for the land due, mainly, to rising interest rates.