General News of Tuesday, 27 July 2021
Source: Dominic Asare, Contributor
2021-07-27
Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Alhaji Daud Sulemana Mahama
The acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission has had his contract renewed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, sources at the Jubilee House have revealed.
Alhaji Daud Sulemana Mahama was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Commission in August 2018 on a two-year contract upon reaching the retirement age of 60 years.
His contract ended in August 2020 and was asked to serve as the acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission for a year.
According to Prime News sources, Mr Sulemana Mahama’s contract has been extended for 2 years despite him turning 63 years this year.
This latest information has angered the workers at the Lands Commission who have threatened a show down if the President does not terminate Mr Sulemana Mahama’s appointment as Executive Secretary.
The workers in May 2020 opposed the appointment of the acting Executive Secretary due to what they claimed was the complexity and convoluted nature of land issues which they say required an energetic and experienced leader.
A year after the workers registered their protest, sources at the Jubilee House say Mr Sulemana Mahama has been reappointed to head the Lands Commission for another two years.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, a worker at the Lands Commission who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr Sulemana Mahama’s re-appointment has to be withdrawn by the President.
“The President can’t do that to us because this man since his appointment has created many problems at the Lands Commission…no Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission has divided the workers front than Mr Sulemana Mahama.”
A female worker said: “The Executive Secretary has created a certain impression to people at the corridors of power that there are some mafias, vampires, and principalities at the Lands Commission.”
According to her, “the Executive Secretary is the chief mafia and principality. Ever since he became the Greater Accra regional lands officer in 2001, he has superintended over a mafia regime where government lands applications are swapped for cronies, where files started getting missing, and in some cases records falsified where two people get documents on the same land.”
“For this reason, records at the courts will show that there are 1000 of such cases at the courts which have resulted and continue to result in huge judgement debts against the state. In some cases, assets of Lands commission have been garnisheed,” she said.
She added that: “What the commission needs is a total overhaul and a personality like our current boss does not represent the required change the Lands Commission needs.”