The task force formed by the Government of Ghana to retrieve state properties in the hands of private individuals must ensure that some unscrupulous persons do not involve themselves in the process to rob people off their properties, Apostle Samuel Yaw Antwi, General Secretary of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, has said.

The Government of Ghana has set up a task force to retrieve state properties, including vehicles, lands, and houses in private hands.

Chief of Staff Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, in a statement to that effect, said: “The Office of the Chief of Staff is informed of various state assets including landed properties and vehicles which are yet to be handed over to the government by individuals, contrary to the law.

“Consequently, government has set up a team comprising officials from the following departments to coordinate the location and retrieval of all such assets in the national interest.

“The agencies include the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs Division), the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), and the Office of the President.

“Persons with state properties unlawfully in their possession should endeavour to contact the taskforce and make arrangements to surrender same with immediate effect.”

The task force has since retrieved some vehicles that were in the possession of some past government officials. However, some of these have turned out not to belong to the state. For instance, the vehicles of the National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were seized and returned because they were found not to be state vehicles.

Speaking in an interview with Accra News on Monday February 20, Apostle Antwi said: “We expected that the office of the Administrator General would deal with the problem of past government officials doing away with state properties because similar things happened in 2001 and 2009, and that led to the establishment of the Administrator General’s office and the passage of the transition act, but the situation has not changed.

“We (Council) want the institutions established by law to work and so if people have stolen state cars, the police should take up the matter, the task force that has also been set up should be allowed to do a proper work.

Other than that, thieves will take advantage of this exercise and steal people’s properties.”