Inland port to be relocated

THE Inland Port Project, which was originally sited at Fumesua near Kumasi, is to be relocated at Boankra, 30 kilometres from Kumasi on the Accra-Kumasi road.

This is because the implementation of the project delayed for seven years because of land litigation at Fumesua.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has, therefore, directed the Ghana Shippers Council, the agency that is relocated the project at Boankra.

The project estimated to cost $10.3 million is expected to creat as many as 1000 jobs when completed.

According to Mr Samuel Ferguson Laing, Ashanti Regional Head of Ghana Shippers Council the necessary survey work has been completed for a 400-acre land at Boankra for the project.

He said the formal acquisition process and necessary compensation arrangements would be worked out in the course of time for construction work to begin.

Mr Laing said unlike Fumesua where the project was entangled in land litigation, the project hasbeen well recieved by the people of Boankra.

He explained that the Minister of Transport and Communication, Mr Owusu Adjepong views the inland port project as very important and should not be made to suffer as a result of land litigation.

The project ran into difficulties as a result of land litigation between the queenmother of Aperede, village located in the project area and the Shippers’ Council, clients of the project.

The queenmother claimed that portions of the land, which was acquired by the government during the First Republic, had been ceded to her by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), custodians of the land.

Graphic invetigations revealed that when the necessary feasibility reports were completed and the sod cutting was about to be performed for the commencementof the project in 1996, the queenmother petitioned the then President, Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings, over the ownership of the land.

The then President referred the matter to the then Ashanti Regional Minister for resolution.

After series of meetings and visits to the site by the Shippers Council, the Aperede queenmother, elders and officials of the Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council, an agreement was reached to cede to Aperede and Mensoum villages 69.4 acres out of a total of 230 acquired for the project.

All the parties accepted the deal and appropriate maps were drawn to that effect.

Unfortunately the queenmother of Aperede, who was present at all the meetings, petitioned the office of the then President again in February 1997 on the same issue.

Whilst the office of the then President was in the process of dealing with the petition, the queenmother iniatiated a court action against the Shippers Council at a Kumasi Hight Court in March 1999.

The court placed an injunction on any development on the land until the case had been disposed of.

Investigations established that the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in response to the appeal to him by the governing board of the Ghana Shippers Council, intervened for the case to be withdrawn from the court for amicable settlement.

In December, the Asantehene led a team to inspect the land after which he decided that 120 acres of the available land from Asokore Mampong boundary towards the Aperede area should be demarcated for the inland free port and all authorised structures which fall within the new demarcated area for the project should be demolished.

The Ashantehene also suggested the preparation of a proper layout for the Aperede area.

It was the expectation of the Shippers Council that its lawyers and those of the qeueenmother of Aperede would meet to submit the settlement to the court for the case to be struck out to enable the council to re-enter the project site for construction work to begin.

Unfortunately the proposed peaceful solution to the problem has unduly been delayed