The Akufo-Addo administration has promised it will work to bring about a “satisfactory” solution to the illegal occupation of lands belonging to schools in the country.

The president made this pledge during the 90th anniversary celebration of Achimota School on Saturday March 4, 2017 as guest of honour.

He said a lot of the country’s schools, including Achimota, continue to experience a takeover of their lands by private developers, a situation which was seriously affecting activities of such institutions for which he assured of government’s action to address the matter.

“Other schools have lost lands, not on the dramatic scale of Achimota, but [whatever] they have lost means they no longer have a playing field and the consequences are equally grave. The problem of encroachment of school lands as a whole will receive urgent attention from my government. Not only attention, but even more importantly, a satisfactory solution,” Mr Akufo-Addo promised.


He said with several “high profile Achimotans” within the ranks of his administration, his government “will doubtless make sure the issue receives attention and resolution”.

Portions of the school’s lands have been taken over by squatters, land guards and developers who are erecting structures without permit.

The school is also battling Osu traditional authorities, the customary owners of the land, in court. The chiefs in 2011 seized 172 acres of the school’s land, arguing it was not being used for the purpose for which it was bought. The Osu stool sold the land to the state in 1921 for £4000.

The Stool in 2016 at a press conference claimed to have secured a court ruling ordering the return of the unused school lands to its traditional owners, following which it had sold portions to private persons.

But an association of former students of Achimota, led by ex-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Ernest Aryeetey, secured an injunction against the order, promising to pull down structures erected by private persons on the land.



Source: AccraFM.com