Land expert and private legal practitioner Kwame Gyan has accused politicians of exploiting the government’s land redevelopment policy.  

According to him, politicians redevelop lands and allocate them exclusively to their party members. This practice has made it easy to determine an individual's political affiliation or otherwise based on the vicinity in which they reside.

Lawyer Kwame Gyan's comments come after a recent allegation of a conspiracy to sell off state lands, including the residence of late Supreme Court judge, Justice Marful–Sau, an accusation the Works and Housing Ministry has since refuted.  

Speaking Wednesday morning on Joy FM’s Supper Morning Show (SMS), Mr Gyan stressed that "If you look at Ringway Estate all the original allottees were CPP. In this country, depending upon who lives where you can determine their political affiliation. So anytime politicians sell land they give it to their party people first and I have the records of allocations from independence up to a certain point.

“The military government shared without party colour because they were not partisan but when the civilians took over, the policy has created too many problems. I don’t even know whether we still have lands to redevelop. The lands are gone,” he said on January 17, 2024.

• Read also: Residence of Justice Samuel Marful-Sau not sold; ignore false claims – Judicial Service

The land expert said the government must broaden their redevelopment plan by considering lands outside prime areas like Cantonments and initiate development there. He believes that this approach will help alleviate the challenges associated with limited availability of land for housing in prime areas.

“We should go to Suhum and facilitate the creation of another Cantonment there. Why are we struggling over the little that we come to see when we come into politics? Why don’t we create and take some so that everybody else can also take some? We still struggle on the small. The redevelopment programme has actually stopped itself. What is there? Where are the lands? 

“They should just let it go and find something else. There are still some public lands which can be properly schemed with roads and so on. Why is everybody interested in Cantonment? It is because of the amenities. We should recreate Cantonment everywhere,” he added.