The Chief of Lower Axim Traditional Area, Awule Attibrukusu has call on the Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission Egbert Faibille Junior to impress on the Ghana National Gas Company to pay compensations to the various landlord whose lands have been taking by the state to lay the gas pipelines from Atuabo to the Aboadze Thermal Plant site in Shama.
Landowners in communities along the Ghana Gas Pipeline in the Western Region have issued a several ultimatum and treats to the Ghana Gas Company Limited and the Land Valuation Board to honour the payment of compensations due them as a result of the compulsory annexation of their lands by the state.
The disgruntled landowners claim the company has so far only compensated them for crops destroyed.
They argue that since 2012, they have been pushing for the payment of outstanding compensation but to no avail.
According to the landowners the Land Valuation Board is dragging its feet in determining the true landowners and subsequently have them paid by Ghana Gas.
The Sekondi High Court, in 2016, ruled that the landowners were entitled to compensation after thorough investigations and valuation exercises were done by the Land Valuation Board of the Lands Commission.
It is against this backdrop that Awule Attibrukusu is advising the Petroleum Commission as a regulator to ensure that the Ghana National Gas Company with immediate effect pay compensations due the landowners before “the situation escalates into another monster we cannot handle”, he said.
The Ghana Gas Pipeline covers about 111-kilometre ROW from Atuabo in the Ellembele District to Aboadze in the Shama District as well as the 75-kilometre lateral line from Essiama to Prestea all in the Western region.
Kojo Ennimil Arthur | Beachfmonline.com | Ghana
