Tussle over Kwabenya landfill site

Government And land owners of the Kwabenya Landfill Site in Accra are still locked in a tussle for compensation.

Currently, the government is unsure what to do with the site which has been abandoned by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, although it has E.I. 1 of 2007 covering it. This was made known to the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts yesterday.

Kwesi K. Bentsi-Enchil, Chief Valuer in charge of compensation at the Lands Commission, told Sole-Commissioner JusticeYaw Apau that the commission was aware of a letter that indicated that the acquisition will stay, adding that it was either going to be used for a school or the school was interested in using the site.

He said the assessed compensation in 2008 was GH¢1,434,113.80 for 112.986 acres and that it was communicated to the AMA.

Subsequently, Agnes Tetteh, owner of 0.16 acres which formed part of the entire acquisition, had petitioned the commission for compensation. The Chief Valuer admitted that they assessed her claim at GH¢1,989.89.

“We advised the AMA on the assessed compensation. The advice indicated that 251.6 acres was in conflict between two allodial claimants. We haven’t heard from them yet, and the assessment is still outstanding.

The Land Valuation Board has no knowledge whether it has been paid or not.”

He alerted the commission that there had been some developments since the valuation report was released, saying, “a letter from AMA and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) indicated that the development of the Kwabenya Landfill Site was being discontinued.”

He said the letter, titled “Implementation of compensation payment to the project affected persons on proposed Kwabenya Landfill Site”, written on 21st January 2013, had indicated on September 2010 that the AMA was discontinuing the landfill site due to agitations by the residents.

“The letters said the government was required under the credit agreement to pay compensation to those affected on the proposed site. Documents showed a sample of the payment voucher which indicated that payment was to be made on behalf of the ministry as ‘disturbance’ allowance for those affected.”

He said the Land Valuation Division was not involved in putting together the said ‘disturbance’ allowance, except the compensation advice communicated to the AMA, saying, “we cannot confirm whether or not our advised compensation assessment had been paid. Regarding what AMA is doing about the compensation if the acquisition is being retained, we have no advice.”

The AMA is expected to appear before the commission to explain the status of the

acquisition. Later, the commission declined to look into the matter of a retiree, Edward Charles Kwame Asante, who had petitioned it to get his pension allowance.

Mr Asante could not tell how much was due him, and the commission said his case could not qualify for a ‘judgement debt case’.