Lands Commission denounces Osu claims

Story: Albert K. Salia
Claims by the Osu Traditional Stool to lands around the Independence Avenue has been denounced by the Lands Commissions with the counter claim that compensation on those lands was paid to the claimants as far back as 1931.
The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Alhaji Hamidu Ibrahim Baryeh and the Chief Land Records Officer of the commission, Mr Emmanuel Odoi-Yemo told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the portion of land being claimed by the Osu Stool was part of a 351.27 acres of land for which the colonial government paid £11,165 in 1931, with £9,531 going to the Osu Stool as compensation.
The other claimants, the Odoi Kwao family, J. H. Adams, Chief Nelson and the Lawrence family collected £1,150, £240, £120 and £120 respectively after Mr Justice Hall entered judgement for the Certificate of Title for government to take control of the land.
Alhaji Baryeh said an appeal by another family to the West African Court of Appeal to be included in the list of claimants was dismissed in 1932.
He explained that the government acquired the land for the purpose of extending the European residential flats in the area.
According to him, the portion of land being claimed by the Osu stool had gone through many hands through leasing.
Giving a record of the leasing, he said, the government leased it to Mr Thomas Nicolson until 1957 when Mr Nicolson transferred it to Mobil Oil Ghana Limited.
He said Mobil Oil Ghana in turned assigned it to Metropolitan Insurance Company in 1998 with the latter transferring it to Ikophops Investment Limited in 2005.
Alhaji Baryeh said anytime there was a transfer, the government had to give its consent to the transaction since the government was the land owner.
Moreover, the government, needed to know the type of development the land was to be used for to help it determine the rent to be paid and the capital gains to be paid to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by the person seeking to transfer it.
Alhaji Baryeh said Ikophops Investment paid $1 million in addition to nearly ¢100 million stamp duty on the land.
Mr Odoi-Yemo said the doors of the Lands Commission were opened to any member of the public for verification on any disputed lands.
He said the resort to violence would send wrong signals to investors that it was not safe to do business in Ghana.