By Alex Boye
The Paramount Chief of Joma within the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, Nii Armah Okropong Shikpootse I, has expressed worry over recent allegations that he was cutting trees along the buffer zone and the protected areas for sale.
The Chief described all the allegations levelled against him as false, and said they were orchestrated to tarnish his image.
Addressing a section of the media at his Palace yesterday, Nii Armah Okropong Shikpootse I stated that he knows the importance of buffer zones in his area and has no intention to destroy them .
“Knowing the importance of climate change as well as the important roles trees play in human lives and the protection of the environment, there is no way I would destroy the buffer zone” he stated.
Nii Armah Okropong Shikpootse revealed that last year he and his Elders purchased and planted over 10,000 seedling of trees as part of efforts to supporting the green Ghana agenda of the Government.
In a related development, the Joma chief expressed concern over the infrastructural and developmental gaps in the area. According to him, the area has since independence suffered from lack of basic amenities like good roads schools, clinics among others.
He bemoaned how the area could not even boast of a common public basic school. The Chief lamented that the road linking Ablekuma to Joma has not been tarred since Independence.
According to him, community members are always forced to visit the hospital weekly due to the hazards posed on them by the bad nature of the road.
He stated that several petitions have been sent to institutions and agencies responsible for the provision of these systems but to no avail.
“We have been executing our tax obligations just as any other Ghanaian but still lags behind when it comes to development” he indicated.
According to him, petitions have also been served to the government over their seized lands in the erstwhile Late General Acheampong regime with reference to El 130 of 1977 for the retrieval of our lands but has yielded no positive results.”
“Our family through our Lawyer made proposals to the Management of Ghana Water Company Limited and the Lands Valuation Board towards the amicable settlement of our acquired land of over 974.07 acres compensations payment but was dishonest by the authorities.”
He also stated that the entire 1,502 acres was refereed to Court of Appeal and justice Adenyira and her team proposed eleven billion old cedis as their land compensation.
“Now we expect the vast portion of our family land which covers an area over one thousand acres dry land which forms part of our ancestral family land to be reconvened to us without any further disappointment” the chief stated.
