The New Patriotic Party’s General Secretary, John Boadu has said some persons are acquiring lands in the name of the party for their personal use.
He said these persons obtain the lands and do not even inform the party about it.
Mr Boadu made the claim when he was speaking on the alleged improper acquisition of state lands by the late former Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (Sir John), in an interview with TV3’s Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show Wednesday, June 1.
He said “we must put this discussion in the perspective. I have a huge problem If you are a Minister for Lands and you are part of the negotiations in returning lands to the owners and you end up acquiring some or being [gifted] some per the arrangement, it is a conflict of interest, straightforward.
“So you must be able to distinguish between the two, for instance, assuming, as per the discussions, I John Boadu, I don’t work at Lands Department, I don’t work at Forestry Commission, I have heard that there is land at Achimota and I have gone to buy 100,000 Cedis and my name appears because I am General Secretary, I have committed a crime?
“So Johnnie Hughes can buy, I cannot buy? It is not a question of morality, it is a question of propriety because the people have been given the land to use for what the planning authority would decide.
“I am sad seeing aspects of the whole programme where you have the allocation for protocol, I am against it. I am against it also because many of these protocols are individuals who get them and a lot in the name of the party. We have been looking around for lands to build our party new party office, why wouldn’t they have given us one?
“They collect it, and the party is not aware, it is an individual benefit, so if we are discussing these issues, we should discuss it dispassionately and single out the individuals because they don’t act in the name of the party, they act in their individual interest.”
