Contrary to testimonies by majority of claimants who collected huge compensations on Apaaso in the Volta Basin Flooded Area that the lands for which they collected the monies belonged to their family/clan, it has now emerged that the lands rather belong to the stool.
This was made known at the Judgment Debt Commission chaired by the Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau when Nana Otieku Amoani Asare III, the chief of Apaaso and Adontenhene of Akwamu Traditional Area appeared before it.
Nana Asare III told the commission that the submerged land belonged to the stool and that his predecessor made mistakes and added the names of occupants of the land to the list of claimants for compensation.
He intimated to the commission that an �error� was committed by those who started the processes for the claims for compensation in the 1970s and that �Apaaso lands are stool lands but my predecessors listed those who had user rights for the payment of compensation.�
Nana Otieku Asare III said he subsequently got power of attorney from all the claimants to chase the compensation and added that the stool signed an agreement with the original claimants to part some of the amounts to them.
He told the commission he collected an amount of GH�332,306.00 as the first tranche and due to about four court suits on the subject-matter, they have not received further payments.
He also said that they put in a claim of 20,384 acres and had processed 12,000, leaving 8,000 yet to be completed.
Justice Apau as a result pointed it out to the chief that he should have taken steps to make the correction before receiving payment saying �your predecessors had done the wrong thing and instead of you making the correction, you validated it.�
Otiso
Nana Obeng Acheampong II, Chief of Addo Nkwanta Otiso when he took his turn said the subject-matter before the commission was pending in a High Court at Hohoe.
Records at the commission indicated that the chief was paid a whopping GH�592,404.03.
Cabinet, in July 2008, approved a consolidated amount of compensation totalling GH�138 million for various stools/families at Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas.
Records at the commission chaired by the Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau revealed that GH�71 million has been paid so far to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH�67 million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.
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