The Lands Commission has described the decision by students of the Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping (GSSM) as rude and unnecessary.
Students of the school earlier on Tuesday, 2 May, picketed the institution to protest the alleged sale of a parcel of land belonging to the school to a private investor.
The students clashed with land guards allegedly assigned by the investor to guard the property which is reportedly intended for a shopping mall. It took police intervention to control the situation.
The students have since petitioned the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Peter Amewu, to within two weeks address the matter else they will march to the seat of government.
However, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Amin Odame, has denied the land in question has been sold to a developer for a shopping mall.
Speaking to Class News’ Mercy Akrofi, he said the commission intended to put up its headquarters on that parcel of land.
“I heard the news this morning about the students going on a demonstration against what the Lands Commission is doing and I find it to be very uncalled for, unacceptable and disrespectful to authority, because these are students who have been engaged on this project that we are doing,” he stated.
“This project started somewhere in 2015 where the board of the Lands Commission decided the ministry should grant permission to the Lands Commission to use that sight for the head office complex building. The ministry approved, Finance also gave approval and we went through the procurement to get a contractor to build a modern office complex for the Lands Commission as its headquarters.”
He continued: “We have since engaged the students to assure them of the support the commission will give to the school and the steps that we have taken to ensure that the school will continue to have a good environment for teaching and learning.
“We have discussed three strategies to ensure the school continues to operate. The first phase is the short-term arrangement and we have agreed that they will continue to have their lectures in the building they are in now, uninterrupted. But we will put a wall around their premises so that the construction will not disturb teaching and learning. …In the medium term, we have agreed a space that is opposite El-Wak. We have offices there, we are going to relocate the staff from that El-Wak to Cantonment where we are now and that El-Wak premises will be free for the school to relocate there when they have modern facilities for teaching and learning. …The commission will arrange for a permanent site, acquire land, and build a permanent school to operate. We have identified three sites at Dodowa, Prampram, and Afienya. These three arrangements have been fully discussed with the leadership of the students.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
