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Parliament has indicted victims of the Adjei Kojo demolition exercise which occurred in February this year for not conducting any search on the land on which they erected their structures at the Land Title Registry. It, however, recommended that in future no state agency should demolish any landed property without recourse to the courts. It also called for the employment of proactive measures by all institutions (both public and private) to avert encroachment that would necessitate the need for a demolition. Furthermore, it recommended that the process of land administration be streamlined. TDC liable It said the Tema Development Corporation (TDC), which had carried out the demolition, was liable to be accused for having slept on its rights for too long, thereby giving the victims a false sense of security and the impetus for continued development and further encroachment on the land. The House also observed that the chiefs of Sraha East and Santeo, who sold the land to the victims, did so illegally and should be made to compensate the victims. To ensure that the chiefs were held responsible for their actions, it recommended the provision of legal assistance for the victims by the government. Background These conclusions and recommendations were contained in a report released by the special committee established by the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, in February this year to investigate the circumstances surrounding the demolition of houses at Adjei Kojo, near Ashaiman. The Speaker set up the committee after the MP for Tema West, Ms Irene Naa Torshie Addo, in whose constituency the demolition took place, had made a statement on the floor of the House condemning the demolition and called for the intervention of Parliament. Terms of reference The committee was mandated to investigate the legitimacy of the claim by the TDC to the demolished site, whether the demolition was justified, whether the due process was followed in the demolition and any matters incidental thereto and make recommendations. The committee's report was released to the House last Friday and unanimously adopted. In Parliament, when the report of a committee is adopted by the plenary, it becomes a report of the House and the views expressed therein become the views of the entire House. Findings According to the report, signed by the Chairman of the committee, Mr David Tetteh Assumeng, based on the documents made available, it was found that title to the land in the affected area was vested in the TDC and had been leased to the company for 125 years by the government, with effect from 1955. Conduct of TDC The committee, it said, found that from 1973 to date, the TDC had ceded portions of the acquired land to the traditional rulers of the area who, in turn, allocated some to the developers. The TDC subsequently regularised those lands by issuing sub-leases to the developers. It said in total, the company released 4,861 acres of land to the chiefs under that arrangement. The problem, however, was that the TDC did not properly demarcate the boundaries to clearly differentiate the portion ceded to the chiefs and that still being retained by the company. Besides, the TDC did not make public what portion of the land was ceded to the chiefs. In the view of the committee, the report said, the lack of publicisation and proper boundary demarcation between ceded portions of the land and the rest of the acquired land possibly contributed to the exploitation of unsuspecting developers by some of the traditional authorities, culminating in the present level of encroachment on the acquisition. Processes of demolition The report said prior to the demolition exercise, the TDC had served notices on the encroachers on several occasions to stop work and marked all unauthorised structures in the area for demolition. The TDC, it added, could not take further action against the encroachers, as they had resorted to appeals and court injunctions which frustrated the efforts of the company. "The TDC was also unable to prevent the encroachers from further development on the land as a result of the activities of armed land guards in the area. In some instances, land guards inflicted injuries of various degrees on the TDC task force in their attempt to prevent the encroachers from developing. For that reason, some of the encroachers continued developing their properties and also managed to stay on the property for more than 10 years," it said. The grantors of affected land The report said it was established during investigations that all victims of the demolished portions of the land acquired their lands from either the Abomatey Family (Sraha East) or the Nii Tetteh Santeo Family (Solomon City). It said the chiefs claimed that the demolished portions were part of their ancestral land which they were at liberty to dispose of without reference to the TDC. However, upon superimposition by the Survey and Mapping Division of the Lands Commission of all the site plans submitted by the victims and the chiefs, all their site plans were found to be squarely within the acquired area. According to the report, the TDC acted on the strength of the Public Lands (Protection) Act 1974 (NRCD 240) (3) to demolish the properties.