The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has established a ten-member Public Lands Protection Team to ensure the protection of lands owned by the State.

This was disclosed by the Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Benito Owusu-Bio at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Team has been tasked with the mandate to review the status of State acquired lands to enable Government to make informed decisions on these lands, to regularly survey and monitor public lands to ensure that they are free of any encroachment and to facilitate the demolishing of structures on behalf of public institutions when required.

The Team comprises a representative from the Lands Ministry, a representative from the Lands Commission, the National Security, two representatives from the Ghana Police Service, one of whom is from the Property Fraud Unit and a representative from the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority.

The others are; a representative from the Attorney-General’s Department, a representative from AYNOK Holdings, the Director of Operations at the Presidency, Lord Commey and a representative of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council.

Addressing the media at the press conference, Mr. Owusu-Bio said the Team is currently “working to secure the Ramsar Site at Tema, Dairy Farms at Amrahia, Pantang Hospital, the CSIR Animal Research Institute, Site for Accra Training College at Mpehuasem (which is the subject matter of the press conference), amongst others.”

The Deputy Minister noted that the action by the Lands Ministry is in relation to Act 1036, Section 236 of the Lands Act which frowns on encroachment on state lands.