Chiefs Must Document Their Lands

The chairperson of the Eastern Regional Queenmothers Association, Nana Adutwumwaa Dokua, has advised traditional authorities to document their lands to enable them to know the exact boundaries of their lands. Nana Adutwumwaa queenmother, who is the queenmother of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, said this at a meeting on Documentation of Lands, with key stakeholders in the field, at Koforidua. The queenmother said it was worrying to hear that none of the traditional areas in the Region had registered their lands and boundaries. Mrs Lillian Bruce, the National Coordinator of Civil Society Coalition of Land (CICOL), said the Government was using a 50-million dollar loan, funded by the World Bank, to provide maps for areas that requested for them to ensure proper accountability and ownership of Land. She said the project would train more experts to serve as focal persons at the community levels. Mr Dauda Wotordzor, a farmer from Asuaba, said in his area, landlords were giving the same land they had already given to farmers to cultivate to sand winners. The sand winners often destroyed the crops of the farmers without compensation, and when the farmers had persisted, the sand winners had asked them to produce permits that gave them access to the land.