Lands Commission engages Pentecost Church of Ghana on land acquisition and the land act

The Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Surv.James E.K. Dadson has expressed his unwavering commitment to ensure that his outfit renders quality and most efficient land administration services by providing reliable and quick land registration requests to its clientele base in order to drastically reduce the incidence of land litigation phenomenon doted across the country.

Surv. James E.K. Dadson gave this assurance during his official engagement with the Royals of the Pentecost Church of Ghana, in Kasoa, on the 2nd June 2022 at the Pentecost Covention Centre in the Central Region, at its annual Royal Conference, where he used the rare privilege to highlight the milestone achievements by his outfit to ensure that issues of land registration is seamlessly processed in order to curb the arbitrary land litigation cases saddled with the country’s Law Courts.

This according to him necessitated the commission to establish 6 more regional administrative offices making 16 Regional offices across the country, in its quest to further bring its services closer to the good people of the country, by decentralizing its work, such that the Lands Commission can be more accessible to Ghanaians, whiles painstaking effort is also being taken to open up offices at all the district Capitals, he assured.

He also charged on Ghanaians to endeavor to exhaust certain due processes before acquiring land by undertaking Ground validation checks, getting a professional to prepare the site plan, and A Search conducted at the Lands Commission to ascertain the true ownership and the eventual status of the land before making any determination for the acquisition of any land.

Surv. Dadson further disclosed that the Lands Commission has also employed the usage of digital innovations that has robustly changed the phase of the land registration procedures which could be accessed and invariably registered on the Lands Commission’s website for any land registration purposes and request made to the Lands Commission.

He added that the commission has started undertaking a digitization drive of its manual records which are being scanned, georeferenced and digitized to bring more speed to the services it provides to the Ghanaian people.

Surv E.K. Dadson also used the platform to highlight some challenges encountered by the Lands Commission, this he intimated as the Multiple sales of Land and Multiple judgements by the courts, He however, assured that his outfit is undertaking far -reaching steps to ameliorate those lingering problems associated with the land registration and acquisition in Ghana.

The Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Surv. James E.K. Dadson emphasized that the Lands Commission is operating under the Lands Commission’s Act,2008 (Act 767) and mandated amongst other things to manage all public lands vested in the hands of President and also advise the Government, local authorities and traditional authorities on the policy framework for the development of the public lands in Ghana.

He used the occasion to commend the Pentecost Church of Ghana for giving the Lands Commission an opportunity to sensitize its memebers, on their massive platform which brought together about two thousand participants drawn from its branches nationwide.

The General Secretary of the Pentecost Church of Ghana, Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi Larbi, on his part, indicated that the rationale for the Conference is to mobilize the Royals (Kings, Chiefs, Queen Mother's & Family Heads to Equip them with the word of God, and to also formally take them through some training on Land issues, and Chieftaincy related matters in resolving most of the land disputes that confronts its members.

Surv. Dadson touched on some critical sections of the Land Act such as;

SECTION 9 (2): Creation of Freehold Interest A person shall not create an interest in or right over any stool, skin, clan or family land that vest in that person, another person or body of persons a freehold interest in that land, howsoever described.

SECTION 10: Restrictions on Acquisition of Land by Non-Citizens No right to give freehold to non-Ghanaian. Freehold given before 1969 is now 50 years commencing 22nd August 1969 to non-Ghanaian Freehold reversion vests in Government Leasehold interest should not exceed 50 years for non-Ghanaian Marriage will not benefit an agreement with a non-Ghanaian A company is foreign where more than 40 % is held by non-Ghanaian.

SECTION 12(1): Protection of Land and Interest in Land (Land Guards) A person who, 1. Unlawfully exercise or purports to exercise control of land development in a location,

2. Has no interest in land and extorts money or other benefits from a person with interest in land or prevents a developer from developing the land, 3. Personally or through another person unlawfully uses force or violence to prevent a person who has an interest in land from having access to the land Commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than fifteen years.

SECTION 13: Management of Stool Skin or Family Land • Subsection (1) Based on Clause (8) of Article 36 of 1992 Constitution • A Chief, tendana, clan head, family head or any other authority in charge of the management of stool or skin, or clan or family land, is a fiduciary charged with obligation to discharge the management function for the benefit of the stool or skin, or clan or family concerned and is accountable as a fiduciary.

SECTION 14 (1): Establishment of Customary Land Secretariat • A stool or Skin, Clan or family that owns land shall in accordance with this Act, establish a Customary Land Secretariat as prescribed by regulations made under this Act for the management of its land.

SECTION 27-28 -Demarcation and Survey • Anyone who wilfully or unlawfully destroys, moves, or alters a boundary or survey mark, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than One thousand penalty units and not more than ten thousand penalty unit or to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year and not more than ten years or to both. • A person who wilfully obstructs or resists an official surveyor or licensed surveyor in the course of their work or a workman of the surveyor commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than one thousand penalty unit and not more than ten thousand penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than ten years or to both.

SECTION 47: Restrictions on Transfer of Land by Spouse A spouse shall not, in respect of right or interest in land acquired for valuable consideration during marriage: a. Sell, exchange, transfer, mortgage or lease the land, right or interest in the Land b. Enter into a contract for the sale, exchange, transfer, mortgage or lease of the land, right or interest in the land c. Give away right or interest in the land inter vivos d. enter into any other transaction in relation to the Land, right or interest in the land without the written consent of the spouse, which shall not be unreasonably withheld Highlights of the

SECTION 73: Electronic Conveyancing A transfer of land or an interest in land is required to be made by a conveyance, that transfer is lawfully made if the transfer is by an electronic conveyance.

SECTION 98 (1): Resolution of Land Dispute An action concerning any land or interest in land in a registration district shall not be commenced in any court unless the procedures for resolution under Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798) have been exhausted.

SECTION 182: Registration of Stool or Skin, Or Clan or Family Land υ The Stool or Skin or Clan/Family to be registered as proprietor of the land.

Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi Larbi, noted that the education by the Lands Commission to their membership, would undoubtedly impact significantly on the traditional rulers and other opinion leaders to have a good stewardship under their various jurisdictions on issues of lands acquisitions and their implications.

Meanwhile, Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi Larbi also received a donation of 50 copies of the Land Act documents on behalf of the church.

Present at the function were the Greater Accra Regional Lands Officer, Surv. Timothy Anyidoho and other officials from the Lands Commission and as well as the general memberships of the Pentecostal Church of Ghana.