Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor has warned against the politicisation of the issue of the sale of state lands to individuals, explaining that the issue is a systemic problem that the Akufo-Addo Government is working hard to resolve.
He stated that as Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, he has a huge cache of documents that show that a lot of land has been sold under previous Presidents including John Mahama. But engaging in the debate of under whose Presidency which piece of land was sold will be needless politicisation which leads nowhere.
He noted that while he welcomes the interest in protecting state assets, including land, seeking to score political points by suggesting that the issue only happens under one government or another is unhelpful.
“We lose the benefit of the discussion if we situate it in a narrow, self-serving political context. We will lose it. Samson, it will just be an exercise in futility. It’ll not be productive. We will begin to say that the Akufo-Addo Government sold this and sold that and therefore the Akufo-Addo Government is engaged in state capture…It will not help us.
I have a litany of land sales in Cantonments, in Ridge, in Roman Ridge, in Airport, in Labone, in the primest of places in Accra, which were sold under President Mahama’s administration; some were sold under President Kufuor; some were sold under President Mills; some were sold under President Rawlings. So if we’re going to now begin to generate…So if we get to that kind of finger-pointing, we’ll lose the essence of this discussion,” he said on Multimedia’s current affairs show Newsfile on Saturday July 20 2024.
North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has been at the forefront of exposing the purchase of, and attempts by politicians, politically-exposed persons and other influential individuals to purchase Government assets, especially lands. He has described such purchases and attempts as state capture, accusing the Akufo-Addo administration of state capture.
However, Samuel Abu Jinapor has refuted the claims, stressing that the Akufo-Addo Government is rather working hard to resolve the age-old problem.
Mynewsgh.com