Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor has described as misleading, claims that the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has rejected portions of the new lands Act.
The law which was passed this year puts the traditional authority in a fiduciary role over lands and empowers subjects to demand accountability over the use of proceeds from land sale.
But the Asantehene, at a meeting between the Ashanti Region House of Chiefs and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, stated areas under his leadership are exempt in the application of the Act.
According to him, the Asante Kingdom has its own systems of accountability over the sale of land which they hold in trust for his office.
But Mr Jinapor tells JoyNews that Asantehene’s concerns does constitute rejection.
“I explained that first of all when you read the Act as a whole, the Act defines who can mount an action first of all. Number two the Act also enjoins anybody who wants to go to court to exhaust the internal customary procedures before you can go to court and when it got to Otumfuo’s turn, Otumfuo said look my Chiefs don’t be too worried about this provision because it doesn’t particularly apply in Asanteman because here we account properly for the proceeds of our land administration so the issue of invoking that provision will not even arise in the first place," he said.
He reiterated that “Otumfuo did not say the sections of that Act does not apply to Asanteman. He didn’t say so."
According to the Minister, the Asantehene said: “it will not arise any way because here they account for their lands properly.”
“I agree with him totally because the places where I have the least trouble in terms of lands administration is Asanteman, Ashanti Region because the lands are properly managed and the proceeds that come out of the sale of land are accountable,” he said.
Latest Stories
-
Asantehene receives more 19th century gold ornament and regalia
32 seconds -
Hohoe Ghana Blind Union organises training for members ahead of Election 2024
7 mins -
Alan Kyerematen reveals his future plans for Ghanaian Health professionals
8 mins -
AAIN empowers women and small enterprises in Upper East Region through SHINE project
9 mins -
Akufo-Addo leads nationwide commissioning of 80 educational projects
15 mins -
Ghana and Seychelles strengthen bilateral ties with focus on key sectors
46 mins -
National Elections Security Taskforce meets political party heads ahead of December elections
50 mins -
Samsung’s AI-powered innovations honored by Consumer Technology Association
1 hour -
Fugitive Zambian MP arrested in Zimbabwe – minister
1 hour -
Town council in Canada at standstill over refusal to take King’s oath
2 hours -
Trump picks Pam Bondi as attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdraws
2 hours -
Providing quality seeds to farmers is first step towards achieving food security in Ghana
2 hours -
Thousands of PayPal customers report brief outage
2 hours -
Gary Gensler to leave role as SEC chairman
2 hours -
Contraceptive pills recalled in South Africa after mix-up
3 hours