The Coalition of La Associations (COLA) on Thursday said government has released more than 200-acres of land the state acquired years ago in the La Dadekotopon Municipality to the La Traditional Council.
This follows several years of petitions and protests from groups and community members in La on the need for the state to return portions of the lands to their rightful owners.
Addressing a news conference in Accra, the President of COLA, Oscar Nii Odoi Glover said the portion of lands released were situated at the East Airport area (Kpletson) bordering Tse-Addo, the Laboma Beach Resort, the Bush Road Goil filling Station area, Amarahia dairy farms and the Adenta-Aviation lands.
“These were lands that the Military had proposed to acquire. They’ve been described as proposed acquisition and I think we all understand proposed acquisition,” he said.
“These are lands that do not belong to the government, we have not given it to the government but the Military felt the location of the land would be of good utility to them and so they wanted it,” Mr Glover said.
He commended government, particularly President Akufo-Addo, for heeding the plea of the people.
Mr Glover said the released lands would enable the community to undertake various developmental projects for the betterment of the youth and future generations.
“Our population is growing and we want a place for our children to lay down their heads, so today, the Coalition is happy to inform the public that President Akufo-Addo has granted this petition and has instructed that portions of the said lands are released to the Stool,” he added.
Mr Glover assured the government of the Coalition’s continued support to address the issue of land grabbing by unauthorised persons.