AIDOO WORRIED SBOUT SALE OF LANDS IN OIL FIND AREA (PAGE 20, OCT 23)

THE Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, has expressed concern about the unprecedented sale of lands by chiefs around the catchment of the oil find without recourse to the interest of future generations.
Those lands, he said, were acquired without any proper plans for development projects in those areas to improve the quality of life of the people.
According to him, it was within the government’s development plan to compulsorily acquire lands near the oil fields, adding that when that became feasible, all chiefs who had made unapproved sales of lands in their areas might be compelled to refund the money.
Mr Aidoo was addressing a general meeting of the Western Regional House of Chiefs in Sekondi.
He said forestry and wildlife were important sectors of the economy, accounting for about 15 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 25 per cent of the nation’s revenue.
Mr Aidoo noted with regret that most forest reserves in the region were under serious siege from chainsaw operators, illegal gold miners, as well as farmers who were plundering the region’s forest resources with impunity.
“In the Afoa Hills, Tano Suraw and Anhwiaso South Forest Reserves in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District, farming activities are being carried out in those reserves with impunity,” he said.
Mr Aidoo said it was the same story in the Tano Anwia, Suhuma, Sui River and KRHI Forest Reserves.
“In the Bia, Dissue River, Muro River, Tano Suhien, Subri River and Bonsa River Forest Reserves, illegal chainsaw operations and felling of trees are also being carried out there in addition to illegal mining in the River Bonsa,” he added.
The regional minister said most chiefs were guilty of complicity in those unacceptable situations because as it was generally known, the illegal farmers in the forest reserves were mostly settler farmers from other parts of the country who got access to the reserves through the chiefs after paying drinks and other rents.
Mr Aidoo reminded the chiefs that for sometime now, there had been a joint military and police timber task force operation in the region’s reserves, which had brought about some transformation.
“It is important to note that but for these interventions, a good number of our forest reserves would have been devastated,” he said, adding, “Let us, therefore, come together and ensure the protection of the region’s forest resources in order to leave posterity a better, richer and more valuable endowment than what we inherited”.
The regional minister advised the chiefs to desist from renting lands in the region’s forest reserves to any person or group of persons to undertake economic ventures without entering into an agreement with the appropriate ministry.
The President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Awulae Attibrukusu, said that Judicial Committees of the House of Chiefs were very important, and praised the House’s Judicial Committee for good work done.