BUKUNOR LANDOWNERS APPEAL FOR COMPENSATION (PAGE 22, JULY 1)

TWENTY-FOUR landowners at Bukunor in the Upper Manya District who were affected by the construction of the treatment plant for the Koforidua Water Project have appealed to the government to prevail on the Ghana Water Company (GWC) to pay them their compensation.
That, they said, would reduce the economic hardship they were currently facing, since they had no land to cultivate.
Making their grievances known to the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, last Tuesday, the spokesperson for the group, Mr Moses Ayertey, said, “In no way should we be made to face unbearable economic hardship after sacrificing our lands in the interest of the nation.”
According to him, in spite of several deliberations with the GWC to pay the landowners, their due compensation had not been paid since the company acquired the land for the water project in 2006 despite several demands.
“In spite of the fact that the Ghana Land Valuation Board has valued the land and approved an amount of GH¢232,854 as payment of compensation since April 28, 2009, the money is yet to be paid,” Mr Ayertey stated.
He said at a time the landowners were informed that the money for the compensation had been released for GWC to pay them, but the company failed to effect the payment of the claims and later informed them that their names had been submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to effect the payment.
“We are now hungry and our petition now is to appeal to the Eastern Regional Minister to present our case to the government to release the money to the GWC to pay our claims to avert our sufferings,” the spokesperson stressed.
He added, “We expect our claims to be paid by the end of June, this year, failure of which we will advise ourselves.”
Corroborating the claims of the 24 landowners, the Regional Land Valuer, Mr Benjamin Osafo, said while payment had been made for the crops on the land which was destroyed, efforts were being made to pay the due compensation it.
Responding, Mr Ofosu Ampofo, who commended the landowners for sacrificing their land for the water project, however, urged them to exercise patience since he was personally prepared to facilitate the payment of the compensation to them.