Tension at Lands Commission as workers fight ‘overage’ Executive Secretary

There is simmering tension at the Lands Commission as workers begin a silent movement to get the Acting Executive Secretary, Alhaji Daud Sulemana Mahama, removed.

 The workers say they have been reliably informed that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has renewed the contract Mr Mahama despite being overage.

“Alhaji Daud Sulemana Mahama was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Commission in August 2018 on a two-year contract upon reaching the retirement age of 60 years.

“His contract ended in August 2020 and was asked to serve as the Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission for one year. Mr Sulemana Mahama will be 63 years this year and our sources say he has been given another two-year contract,” according one of the agitating workers.

The workers are threatening to demonstrate if the President does not rescind Mr Sulemana Mahama’s appointment as Executive Secretary.

There are also allegations that the Acting Executive Secretary has visited high profile personalities in the country, including the Chief Imam, among others to call for their intervention in the appointment.

The workers in May 2020 opposed the appointment of the Acting Executive Secretary due to what they claimed was the complexity and convoluted nature of land issues which they say required an energetic and experienced leader.

A year after the workers registered their protest, sources at the Jubilee House say Mr Sulemana Mahama has been reappointed to head the Lands Commission for another two years.

Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, a worker at the Lands Commission who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr Sulemana Mahama’s re-appointment has to be withdrawn by the President.

“The President can’t do that to us because this man since his appointment has created many problems at the Lands Commission,” he said.

He added that: “no Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission has divided the workers front than Mr Sulemana Mahama.”

A female worker said: “The Executive Secretary has created a certain impression to people at the corridors of power that there are some mafias, vampires, and principalities at the Lands Commission.”

According to her, “the Executive Secretary is the chief mafia and principality. Ever since he became the Greater Accra regional lands officer in 2001, he has superintended over a mafia regime where government lands applications are swapped for cronies, where files started getting missing, and in some cases records falsified where two people get documents on the same land.”

“For this reason, records at the courts will show that there are 1000 of such cases at the courts which have resulted and continue to result in huge judgement debts against the state. In some cases, assets of Lands commission have been garnisheed,” she said.

She added that: “What the commission needs is a total overhaul and a personality like our current boss does not represent the required change the Lands Commission needs.”