Judge Calls For Action Against Multiple Land Sales Thursday, 12 July 2007

Attempts to resolve the numerous land litigation cases in the country through the setting up of specialised land courts will yield no appreciable results unless drastic measures are taken to halt the practice of multiple land sales, says Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, a Supreme Court judge.

"There is the need to get a policy that will have all lands in the country under the control of one body which will be responsible for its regulation", he said.

Justice Brobbey was delivering a public lecture organised by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church in Accra on Tuesday as part of the country’s 50th anniversary programme. He spoke on the topic, "Freedom and Justice: The road to development."

He noted that as long as lands remained in the hands of individuals who had ownership for 99 years and passed it on to their children for another 99 years, "we can never resolve the numerous land problems in the country."

Justice Brobbey said the lack of political will to have this issue resolved was a matter of concern, saying that it was important to resolve some of the issues that could be resolved now; otherwise there would be nothing for posterity in the next 50 years.

He described as unacceptable, the practice where Ghanaians only realised problems with land allocation during floods.

"When the floods come and people are affected, then we begin to question who sold which land and who bought it but once the floods go away these concerns die off," he stated.

"As part of our developmental agenda, when the harm is pointed out, we turn round and struggle for solutions while the Constitution has well defined answers to all such issues," he said, quoting Article 20 (10) (a) of the Constitution which states "the taking or possession or acquisition is necessary in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, town and country planning or the development or utilisation of property in such a manner as to promote the public benefit."

Justice Brobbey emphasised that "even if the developer has a building permit, the Constitution allows compulsory acquisition of the area in question for any of the reasons stated in the constitutional provisions quoted above. All that is required is to compulsorily acquire the water course."

He asked city and municipal councils to "take the bull by the horn and proceed to acquire the disputed water courses."

Relating freedom and justice to development, Justice Brobbey said these two provisions would not by themselves bring development to the country but create an enabling environment for better and faster development.

He said "the Constitution gives them the freedom to fight back or not in the event of a coup d’etat."

"When they exercise their freedom to fight back and they endure suffering or incur any loss, justice will be meted out to them by payment of adequate compensation," he said, noting that it was a Constitutional guarantee.