Ashanti Chiefs to vomit 60% of land proceeds

..as Residents Abroad Bare Teeth
The heads of some Ashanti chiefs are likely to roll soon, as a group of Ashantis resident abroad intend to take legal action against chiefs who sell plots of land and line their pockets with the proceeds at the expense of the development of the young generation.

They are angered by the fact that hundreds of thousands of plots have been sold in the Kumasi metropolis and its immediate surroundings without any chief accounting for the proceeds to the people, bringing poverty into the Ashanti kingdom as a result.

A select team of the concerned group are due in Kumasi in September to have audience with the Manhyia Palace, the Asanteman Council and the Kumasi Traditional Council to state their case.

They are determined to go to the Supreme Court for interpretation of section 267 of the 1992 Constitution which provides that all stool lands in Ghana shall be vested in the appropriate stool on behalf of, and in trust for the subjects of the stool in accordance with customary law and usage. The group clarified that the intended lawsuit is devoid of any political and tribal motivations.

According to Emmanuel Kusi Appiah, a resident of Michigan, USA and spokesman for the group, the grounds for the law suit are varied. They contend that chiefs are not owners of the land or plots they sell, lease or rent and that by the provision of the constitution, chiefs hold the property (land) in "trust of the people."

According to the aggrieved persons, few chiefs have captured this resource and are using it to develop themselves with some of them marrying several women with what they claim to be the "people's money". "Many of these chiefs have refused to repair or build palaces for the future chiefs," they complained.

Spokesman Kusi Appiah told this reporter that since the government has no money to provide facilities to transform the future generation from hawkers to doctors, engineers, lawyers and professors, the only thing left for most communities to use to develop their people, schools and communities are the sale of plots.

He said JSS and SSS facilities need rebuilding and re-equipping. Village teachers need to be provided with accommodation and other incentives to motivate them. It is reported that only a shocking 4% of the JSS pupilts in Ashanti who completed school in 2001 made it to the SSS compared to 37% in Accra. The group are arguing that the sale of one square mile of land yield 2,700 building plots. They said, using 700 plots for construction of roads and other facilities in the area, the remaining 2000 plots could yield $6 million.

Kusi Appaih, specifically mentioning the Kwapra and Kwamo lands, wondered how much money in dollars the chiefs there had made from such sales. According to him the Kwaprahene has sold over two mile square area at Pankronu in Kuinasi and would have to account for 60% of all monies accruing as compensation to the people and the future generation.

"In view of the aforementioned, the group would want the chiefs in question to refund 60% of the proceeds of plots sold since 1980 into a bank account of the various communities for use by the Town Development Committees to build libraries, computer laboratories and accommodation for teachers." The group say they are open to negotiations. The move comes at the trail of the concerns of the occupant of the Golden Stool, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who earlier this month cautioned against the wanton sale of plots of land by chiefs in Ashanti.

Coincidentally, the Kusi Appiah group's agitation come at a time when some Nananom are also pressing Government to release royalties on stool lands to them as custodians of the lands in trust for the people.

After some chiefs accused the government of "sitting" on their money for too long, Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo yesterday morning had to go on Peace FM, an Accra radio station, to disclose that he had already paid ?500million to the chiefs to "mend their umbrella" and take care of other palace needs. The Minister, however reminded the chiefs that the monies, primarily are meant for the infrastructural development of their communities and not for their communities and not for their personal use or the comfort of their immediate families.

Maafo added that much more monies are to be released to the stool and their occupants.