Editorial
Let’s find a lasting solution to land guards’ activities
Land guards’ activities are increasingly posing a risk to private developers in urban areas and making it difficult for people to develop their land. Finding a lasting solution to this threat is necessary.
A group of people known as land guards attack and vandalise real estate developers and their projects.
Even though the majority of these private developers have legitimately acquired their land, these land guards intimidate, harass, threaten with all manner of weapons, and even beat their victims.
Due to the land guards’ avarice, some victims have even sustained cutlass wounds. While some land guards go around collecting digging fees and preventing labourers from working, others resort to using force to extort large sums of money from property owners.
People’s attempts to acquire and develop their parcels of land, especially those living in expanding urban communities, have become so frustrating, and the actions of these land guards have dashed the hopes of many.
The fact that people who legitimately acquired plots of land with the necessary documentation have had to abandon their projects out of fear of being killed by these land guards, as it has happened to some in the past, is extremely disturbing.
The initial purpose of the introduction of land guards was to safeguard the legitimate owners of lands, whether they be family, individual, or stool lands, from encroachments. However, some people have abused the situation to take advantage of helpless people and engage in multiple land sales.
Their actions are now more of an annoyance than a deterrent to encroachment. Some private developers, however, have turned to the courts to handle their cases to prevent them from losing their hard-earned investment.
The harassment of residents of the Amamole community in the Ga North District by land guards is a prime example of this. Residents were terrorised in the community and were forced to cry for protection and appeal to the Police and social intervention groups to help them.
Residents claim that these land guards forcibly took from them pieces of land they had purchased for more than 12 to 50 years with proper documentation, demolishing some buildings in the process.
The Spectator is worried that despite government measures to ward off land guards, they are still able to pursue their agenda. To avoid land disputes, individuals must search at the Lands Department before doing business on lands.
Also, those who parade themselves as land owners but in actual fact are crooks selling the same land in multiples should be reported to the appropriate authorities for the law to deal with them.
Let us make a concerted effort to ward off these land guards to enable individuals acquire parcels of land genuinely and be free to develop them so they can have a decent place to lay their heads.
We hope that the activities of land guards will sooner or later become a thing of the past.
Dear Editor,
Walking along roads in some parts of the capital has become increasingly challenging.
While trading on pedestrian walkways remains a concern in certain areas, the parking of vehicles on road shoulders also poses a serious risk to pedestrians.
Often, pedestrians are forced to walk dangerously close to these parked vehicles or even step into the middle of the road to make way for oncoming traffic.
This situation is not only frustrating but also highly unsafe.
I recall an incident when I alighted at a lorry station and was walking home. A Tata bus was approaching, and due to vehicles parked on both sides of the road, I had nowhere to walk safely.
The situation became so dangerous that I had to quickly jump into a nearby shop to avoid being knocked down by the oncoming Tata bus.
That experience was frightening and could have easily resulted in an accident.
In my view, it is time for authorities in the road sector, such as the National Road Safety Authority and the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, to take urgent action to address this issue and prevent possible loss of life.
Strict enforcement measures, including towing improperly parked vehicles and imposing substantial fines, would serve as a deterrent to offenders.
From Ray
Adabraka
Dear Editor,
I wish to use this column of your respected newspaper to appeal to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to consider bringing back the practice where students stayed home for some months after completing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Within that period where they stay home for some time and wait for their results, it afforded parents some time to prepare and save towards the next move in the academic life of their children.
In recent times, students are quickly admitted into Senior High School immediately after their examinations, leaving little time for parents and guardians to adequately prepare financially and emotionally for the next stage of their children’s education.
Many parents, therefore struggle to buy school items such as chop boxes, trunks, mattresses, uniforms and other necessities within the short period given.
This situation places pressure on families, especially those with low incomes.
Previously, the break after BECE allowed students to rest after years of academic work while parents and guardians made proper preparations for their wards.
It also gave students enough time to learn vocational skills, assist their families and mature before entering boarding school life.
Bringing back this period will greatly reduce stress on both parents and students and help ensure better preparation for Senior High School education.
And one other thing we have not taken notice of is that within that period, parents also prepare their children mentally and psychologically before they go to school. They are thought how to be independent.
So we see new secondary students displaying an appreciable level of maturity which is missing in this era where they go to senior high schools and still behave like primary school kids.
I hope the authorities will carefully consider this concern in the interest of students, parents and guardians across the country.
By Eugene Ampiaw,
Accra.
