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Traditional rulers hail the introduction of Customary
Land Secretariat
Dodowa(GAR) 26, Aug. Ghanadot/GNA-
The Customary Land Secretariat (CLS)has been hailed by a
cross section of Chiefs and traditional rulers in the
country as a potent tool for streamlining land
administration in the country.
CLS is a component of Land Administration Project (LAP) that
would oversee the implementation of various activities
including registration and documentation of parcels of land
in rural Ghana.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on
Wednesday at the national learning workshop at Dodowa near
Accra, Seidu Amankwa Gbeadese II, Bolewura, said CLS was not
introduced to usurp chiefs’ control over land.
“We were initially skeptical but this system of land
administration rather empowers the chief together with other
land owning persons to have a common voice in matters of
land administration,” he said.
He said CLS rather entrusted powers the traditional rulers
never had and brought sanity in the land administration
system in areas such as documentation of land and settling
land disputes at the local level.
The Bolewura said those in possession of old documents on
their land were helped to acquire new ones as a means of
regularizing the system.
He said the most remarkable accomplishment of the CSLs was
the use of the Alternative Dispute Resolution which
according to him served as a credible means of conflict
resolution.
He said in the past, people who did not own land could sell
parcels of land under false pretence but such practice could
no longer hold since the real owner would have had documents
on all land under his jurisdiction.
Nana Barima Asu-Adjei, Krontihene of Dormaa traditional
area, said the introduction of the CSL was a remarkable
improvement on the previous method of land administration in
the country.
He said “the use of the ADR system in settling cases was
more effective and cost effective as it does not breed
animousity among litigants even after settlement unlike the
costly court system that leaves losers torn and bruised
after the verdict is announced.’”
He said the CLS has had all houses in traditional areas
enumerated, lands surveyed which had been very beneficial to
the communities as it formed the data base of the
traditional area.
Torgbui Kportsu Amengor II, chief of Fievie traditional area
in the South Tongu district in the Volta region, said the
CLS was only at Sogakope and called on the government to
assist in expanding it to other areas of the Tongu district
when funds were available.
Though fifty CLSs are expected to be established, only 38
were operational as the project draws to an end in August
2009.
He said the introduction of the CLS had helped reduced
multiple sale of land in his traditional area.
Torgbui Amengor said in the past people who took land from
legitimate owners for farming purposes could sell them
without the knowledge of the owners and noted that
presently, those in need of land no longer go to individuals
but come to the secretariat.
He said under the ADR, cases involving multiple sale of land
were peacefully dealt with by reallocating another plot of
land to those who had genuine documents covering the land.
“In some cases we share the land among the two buyers adding
that all these were done in consultation with the two
parties,” he said.
“It is win-win affair not the court systems which crown one
party and condemn the other party,” he said.
He said although, funding of the CLS ends in August 2009, he
was optimistic that the secretariat would be self sufficient
through proceeds from the sale of land and other services
rendered to the people.
He called on other traditional rulers who could not apply
for a CLS in their area to do so now as a matter of urgency.
LAP which is aimed at making land administration system more
effective and efficient to promote security of tenure
amongst others was established in 2003 as framework for
implementing the National land policy adopted in 1999.It is
jointly sponsored by the government of Ghana and six other
development partners.
GNA
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