By Helena Selby
We brought nothing into this world, and it is evident that we will take nothing with us, goes a biblical saying. Man came into this world nude, with nothing to call one’s own, however destiny determines what one is supposed to attain in life. It is logical that the level of prosperity attained by some people is different from others. This, people believe can be attributed to the fact that we all cannot be in power, there is the need for some people to be greater than others, and also to be in authority, to ensure law and order in our communities. Though people understand this principle of life, the question is do all the people understand, and accept the fact that we all are different, when it comes to wealth and power acquisition.
In Ghana, and many parts of the world, the level of prosperity and wealth is mostly determined by the material property one has. Owing to this people tend to struggle over land, in order to attain rights over it, so as to be counted among the class of well to do. This compels people to engage in land or property fraud.
Land and property fraud
This crime type can be defined as obtaining land or a parcel of land, or real estate that is owned by somebody else, through deliberate deception, especially for financial gain. The issue of land and property fraud, through falsification of documents, has been on the increase of late.
Land, being one of the criteria in measuring one’s level of wealth, has been the foremost basis of conflicts in the country. This dilemma of land fraud/swindle normally exists in places of commercial activities where there is a large investment.
People, with the intention of safe guarding their property, tend to recruit, what are popularly known as landguards, who are reportedly intimidating residents of the area and especially developers.
n some cases the situation ends up very bloody, with fatal injuries, loss of properties, and in some cases loss of lives. In Ghana, places of frequent cases of land fraud include Ablekuma, Baatsona, Kokrobite, and Pokuase, all in the Greater Accra Region. Other places include Gomoa, Kasoa and some parts of Tema.
Kinds of land and property fraud
According to a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) press briefing report, some scoundrels, claiming ownership of lands in the identified areas, indulge in the practice of the sale of land to more than one person, and engage ‘landguards’ to protect their acquired interest, who resort to harassing and preventing prospective developers from working peacefully on their lawfully acquired lands.
According to Moses Amponsah, who deals in car spare parts, land dealers often sell a piece of land to more than two people, when they realise the new buyer is offering more than what they had already received from a buyer.
When this happens, to previous buyer, retrieving the money becomes a problem. At certain times also, when the seller realises that the sold out land has not been developed in a long time, they re-sell the land. This, in the long run, compels them to go into hiding.
Renting of houses to prospective tenants
Individuals, as well as groups of people sometimes go to the extent of placing advertisement on house rentals in the daily papers, and when prospective tenants respond to the adverts, they usually take them to their accomplices in the fraudulent houses rental business and dupe them.
A true story
A secretary of the Department of Co-operatives in Accra, who lives at Abossey Okai with her family, is presently a victim of property fraud. According to the secretary, (name withheld, somewhere in April, this year, she saw an advertisement in the Daily Graphic by an accommodation agent, indicating that he had a house to rent.
She, being in dire need of a place, decided to call the gentleman. He took her to Mamprobi, a suburb of Accra, and showed her the house to be rented.
After the meeting, she was directed to the alleged landlord, one Dominic Boateng, for negotiations.
At the end of negotiations, it was agreed on GH¢150 per month for two years, totalling GH¢3,600, as the rent. According to the secretary, she made a part payment of GH¢2,600 to the landlord, promising to pay the remaining within a week, and was issued receipt.
She later on went to the said house at Mamprobi, to inform the caretaker that she had paid the rent, only to be told that the house belonged to someone else, and not the said landlord, Dominic Boateng.
Ghana Police Service rescue efforts
According to a website - Id21Communicating Development Research - Ghana’s customary land laws are strongly legalised. Chieftaincy is the main institution for regulating land disputes, although this sometimes conflicts with state systems, especially in and around the urban areas.
The government aims to encourage a revival of the chiefs’ customary justice, and is piloting new Customary Land Secretariats for local land administration.
The Criminal Investigation Department noticing the ascendancy of the issue of land and property fraud has set up the Property and Fraud Unit at the CID Headquarters, to handle land dispute and other property-related crimes.
The Unit, since its inception about two and half years ago, has handled a number of cases bordering on fraudulent land transactions, forgery, altering documents, trespassing and causing unlawful damage to property.
Government’s efforts
The 26/07/2006 edition of the Statesman Newspaper, according to the then Minister for Lands, Forestry & Mines, Prof Dominic Fobih, the government’s dream to introduce a property owning democracy in Ghana, would come to naught if the title that secures ownership to immovable property, cannot be guaranteed. The country’s remarkable failure, over the years, to come up with a comprehensive, compliable, predictable and consistent land reform policy, was very much at the bottom of the chequered nature of Ghana’s development efforts.
The government with the frequent occurrence of land and property swindling, has not being sitting idle, but through the Ministry of Lands, Forestry & Mines, the government has embarked on the Land Administration Programme.
Prof. Fobih says key issues identified in the policy document, include inadequate policy and regulatory framework, weak land administration regime, both public and customary, indeterminate boundaries of customary lands, multiplicity of land disputes which have clogged the courts system, general indiscipline in land use, development and disposition. The mechanism for addressing these issues is the land administration programme. The objective, said Prof. Fobih, was to establish a self-sustaining land administration system, that is fair, efficient, transparent, cost-effective and, very importantly, a system which guaranteed security of tenure.
Government is integrating all existing public sector land departments and agencies, except the Town and Country Planning Department, into a corporate entity, under the singular umbrella of the Lands Commission. The move is aimed at facilitating easy and speedy acquisition of land title deeds.
The Lands Commission Secretariat has therefore been ordered to cease deeds registration of private and family lands, which will henceforth be done by the Land Title Registry. The Commission will seek to re-organise the Survey Department, Land Title Registry, Land Valuation Board, and the existing Lands Commission Secretariat, into one corporate entity under the Lands Commission.
Benefits of the Land Administration programme
The sector minister had the intention of helping customary land owners. According to him, these people have often relied on the courts, during land disputes, to determine their boundaries. Mostly court rulings are contested, and result in further appeals with attendant high costs, and the freezing of development on the land. The project would promote the development of local conflict resolution mechanisms.
The map of traditional land boundaries, and issuing of land titles to cover such holdings, would facilitate the resolution of boundary conflicts. The courts would be strengthened to expedite the resolution of the large number of land cases clogging the courts system.
For Land Sector Agencies, the project would benefit land sector agencies, through the streamlining of their functions, and foster the cooperative production of land administration services, if possible. They would benefit directly through capacity-building in both human and material resources.
What’s more, with Private Sector Enterprises, land acquisition for investment purposes is often fraught with uncertainty, as a result of land disputes over different interests in the same parcel of land. In their case, the project would assist in identifying the land ownership categories, and provide them with secure titles. Private sector entrepreneurs could then transact business on these lands without fear. Secure and transferable land titles would revitalise land and financial markets, particularly in urban settings.
Prof. Fobih noted that in addition, some of the project activities, in the form of cadastral mapping and surveying, would be contracted out to private firms and individuals. Capacities of those engaged in these functions, and in real estate markets, would be strengthened through training and support to their professional associations. These activities would further strengthen the role of the private sector in the economy.
Conclusion
Though the government and the police have stepped efforts in the solving of issues land dispute, it is also the responsibility of citizens to be on the lookout, in order to prevent not becoming victims of these charlatans.
There is the need to bear in mind that, availing one’s self to these criminals, increases the crime rate in the country, hence preventing potential investors from coming in to invest.
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