A Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has asked President J.E.A. Mills to exert his authority and outlaw the practice of leasing government lands to individuals and companies. Mr. Ablakwa who was speaking on Radio Gold's Alhaji and Alhaji programme on Saturday said it was unnecessary for the president to institute a presidential commission to investigate the sale of government lands. Pressure group, the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) this week called on the president to institute a commission of inquiry to probe the allocation of government lands to private individuals particularly under the Kufuor regime. But the Deputy Information Minister believes such a commission won't be necessary, insisting that, “The president should just assume his presidential responsibility...and revoke the sale of the houses and bungalows.” Mr. Ablakwa went through a long list of officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who he said had been allocated lands. The list, according to him, included, Kwame Osei Prempeh, Sheik I.C. Quaye, Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, E.A. Owusu Ansah, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Yaw Osafo Maafo, Fosuabah Banahene, Justice S.A.B. Akuffo, Ebenezer B. Sekyi-Hughes, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Justice A.K.B. Kludze, S.K. Boafo, Dr Osei Akoto, J.H. Mensah, Dr Joe Blankson, Shirley Ayorkor Botwe, Maurine Amematekpor, Dr Sam Jonah, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Nana Kweku Duah, Ivor Agyemang Duah, Ras Boateng, Richard Anane, Kofi Opoku Edusei and many more. He said the practice is unwholesome and should be stopped altogether, so that instead of governments allocating lands and other state properties to their cronies on the quiet who in turn pay a pittance, they should all go to the open market and buy what they desire. The ban, he suggested, should also cover the acquisition of vehicles, saying it should no longer be possible for persons allocated official vehicles for their duties to purchase the vehicles after the vehicles are two years of age. They should go to the open market to purchase same. The Deputy Minister impugned sinister motives for the allocation of lands to judges. He believes that was done to ensure that the judges thwart the ruling government’s quest to bring corrupt past government officials to book. A leading member of the CJA, Kwesi Pratt, who was also a panel member on the programme expressed dismay at the manner in which lands and other government properties were sold, arguing that the allocations were done under dubious circumstances. Mr. Pratt said, “People got to know about the sale of those lands through a whispering campaign and if you were not part of the inner circle there was no way that you could know that those lands were available. No proper procedure was followed.” He indicated that documents from the Lands Commission showed that the vast majority of the lands were given out by the then Minister of Works & Housing in the Kufuor regime, stressing that the minister had no authority to allocate those lands to any individual. Mr. Pratt also pointed out that there was some arbitrariness in the valuation of the lands that were sold. He said some people paid peanuts for lands and sold them at outrageously exorbitant prices and made illicit profits. Story by: Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana