By Omotayo Edubi
Traditional Council in Weija, Ghana is asking for a compensation from government over the siting of the Weija Dam on its land (50,000 acres), which it says was given to the government by their forefather some forty-four years ago for the construction of the dam.
The Council held a press conference on Wednesday to let the government know of their frustrations over setback of payments of compensations to the Weija Traditional Council, the chiefs and people of Weija expressed their disappointment at the government for the delays.
According to them, their forefathers gave the land to the government for the construction of the Weija dam, which has been serving the needs of many Ghanaians across the length and breadth of the country for over 4 decades.
They indicated that during the time of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and late President John Evans Atta Mills, they made several attempts to draw the attention of the government, but it yielded no result.
The Traditional Council however wants the government to speed up processes for the compensations to be paid to its rightful owners.
“Our town has become overpopulated and the inhabitants do not have places to lay their heads. They should show us the boundaries for us to know our no-go area. We are by this also appealing to the government to give us a portion of the land to give our inhabitants places to live.” The council said.
Apart from these challenges, the traditional council also denied reports that it has given portions of the buffer zone to developers for sand-winning activities, threatening the very existence of the dam.
According to them, the Weija Community has overgrown and there is the need for government to release portions of the over 50,000-acre land aside from the buffer zone to traditional authorities for development.
