Long possession of land does not translate into ownership – Ghanaians told
Director of the Ghana School of Law, Yaw D. Oppong, has stated that long possession of land does not translate into ownership.
According to him, the Laws of the state do not guarantee land ownership to a person without recourse to the rightful owner, no matter how long the former may have been in possession of the land.
“Long possession of land does not in and by anyway ripen into ownership and the authorities are very clear on that,” he stressed.
He was speaking on Sunday, July 10, on The Law on the JoyNews channel.
Contributing to discussions on the show, he also propounded that the natives of a land should not be given a limitation on the number of years that they can acquire and hold on to a parcel of stool land.
According to the Laws of the state, the longest period a non-indigene may hold on to a parcel of stool land is 99 years. However, Mr Oppong is suggesting that this term of land ownership should not apply to natives of a land.
He said this is due to their immutable rights as a result of them being a member of that particular tribe or ethnic community.
He explained that his argument is based on the fact that the ancestor of the person seeking to acquire a parcel of stool land may have been part of the group that either fought to acquire or had settled first on the land.
He noted that the only people that deserve to be given a limitation of years on how long they can hold on to a parcel of stool land are non-indigenes of that ethnic community or tribe.
Source: Ghana News
