The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has told the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts that it had abandoned the landfill site acquired by the government at Kwabenya in Accra.
According to Graham Owusu Sarbah, AMA�s Projects Coordinator, even though the government acquired the 350-acre land under E.I. 1 of 2007, continuous agitations and demonstrations by residents of the area compelled the assembly to look elsewhere for waste disposal.
Testifying before the Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, yesterday over unpaid compensation for the land, Mr. Sarbah said that immediately the land was acquired, the AMA constructed a link road to the site and tried to commence business but it was vehemently disrupted.
Road Construction
�The moment we constructed the roads, there were a lot of agitations from residents. They said they could not trust the AMA when it comes to waste management. I remember then Vice President Aliu Mahama�s convoy was stoned at one point when he visited the site,� Mr. Sarbah recalled.
He said since it was a donor-funded project, the World Bank expected the government to sort out all outstanding environmental and other social issues before they could commit themselves, but once it was being frustrated, the donors wanted to look elsewhere.
The witness said at one point the assembly engaged a consultant to educate the residents about the usefulness of the landfill site but they would not budge.
�The project did not start, apart from the road we constructed. The AMA never took a gram of waste to the site,� he said.
He said that later AMA boss, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, visited the site and
saw massive encroachment adding, �While they were blocking the consultant
from engaging them, others were busily developing the land.�
The projects coordinator said as a result, the assembly, in September 24, 2010, wrote to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to discontinue the use of the site, but there was no response from the ministry.
He said currently, �there is not even an acre of land at the site for compensation to be paid,� adding, �it is up to the Lands Commission to remove the Executive
Instrument or pay compensation.�
However, Justice Apau said he thought it should be the ministry and not the Lands Commission that should remove the Executive Instrument if the AMA was no longer interested in the land.
Adonten SHS Lands
Later, the matter of who is the rightful owner, and whether lands were donated for the development of Adonten Senior High School at Aburi, Eastern Region, became the subject of debate at the commission.
The land was acquired by the government in 1974 and the E.I. was formally issued in 1978, but a witness, Nartey Raymond Kwao Tettey, claimed the land belonged to descendants of Awo Amene of the Yeboa Akwatia Agona family of Aburi and that compensation
had not been paid to the family.
He said it was Hebert Ohene Donkor who later became Nana Yeboah Akwatia II, who had given the land to the government and insisted the land was not donated.
Another group, led by Nana Apiadu Bediako, who is the Sanaahene of
Aburi, had commissioned a consultant to chase compensation
for him in respect of the same land in 2013.
In the apparent confusion, Kwesi K. Bentsi- Enchil, chief valuer incharge
of compensation at the Lands Commission, appeared to set the records straight when he testified.
He said numerous correspondences between Nana Yeboah Akwatia II and the Regional Lands Commission in Koforidua as well as the school�s authorities, appeared to indicate that the land was donated by H.O. Donkor on behalf of the family.
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