The management of the Hohoe Evangelical Presbyterian Senior High School (HEPSS) in the Hohoe Municipality of the Volta Region has lamented the continuous encroachment on the school lands.

The Headmaster, Franklyn Amesimeku, indicated that irrespective of a court injunction on the development of the land, tens of acres of the school lands have been sold illegally and are being developed.

Speaking to Joy News, he called on the relevant authorities to step in and stop the sale and encroachment on the school’s lands.

He said that the school was established in 1961 on 225 acres of land provided by seven amalgamated families in the Gbi Traditional Area in the Hohoe Municipality.

Our revealed that Six Hundred Cedis, a life ram, six bottles of Schnapps, and a pot of palm wine were provided to signify the formal acquisition of the land in 1969.

“The first one is the Fodome Tsevi family, the Buahebe family, the Asamani family, the Awalime family, the Deku family, the Nukpe family, and the Afeke family.

"So, these were the families that are documented to have donated the land on which the school was established", he said.

Mr Amesimeku said there were no disagreements until about two decades ago when some individuals claimed ownership of undeveloped parcels of land in the southeastern part of the school land.

This he said led to a legal tussle, with the Hohoe High Court subsequently laying an injunction on the development of the conflicted land.

“We have had a challenge with our school for close to twenty years now. The case is in court and an injunction is placed on the land", he explained.

However, there is an indication of continuous illegal sales and development on the conflicted land.

Several boundary pillars have been erected, with buildings at various stages of completion on the land.

Mr. Amesimeku said the development came as a surprise to the school authorities who had relied on the court to enforce the injunction until the case was brought to a closure.

He alleged that the plaintiffs were responsible for the sales of the lands, explaining that “if the case progresses, then they will come with an intervention that they want to withdraw for the Chiefs to settle and that buffer space that they will create between taking the case from the court to the Chiefs to settle, that is when they have been selling the lands”, he explained.

He entreated the old students, the Chiefs, and elders of the Gbi Traditional Area to support the school in reclaiming and protecting the lands for future development.

The teaching body fears the school may lose a substantial quantity of its land if authorities sit aloof allowing people who do not own rights to the lands to continue to sell them off to unsuspecting people.

“If this continues without the authorities acting, then we fear a time will come when there would be no land for infrastructure development”, said Delali Kasu, an Assistant Headmaster of HEPSS.

Nonetheless, the Hohoe Municipal Assembly has visited the disputed area and authorized people developing the lands to stop work produce their building permits.

"School land. Stop work. Produce Permit. By HHMA" were written on the structures being developed in the area. Some developers, however, used cement to erase the inscriptions.