The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio has announced the government's plans to reclaim all lands occupied illegally.

Addressing the press in Accra he said the government was concerned with the encroachment on state lands, citing particularly the land at Mpehuasem, a suburb of Accra.

He defended the demolition of some walls and temporary structures on a parcel of land at Mpehuasem, stressing that the Ministry had the right to protect the said lands from encroachment.

"In recent times, there have been disturbances at Mpehuasem relating to government's attempt to recover State Lands which have been encroached upon by unauthorized persons. It must be stated that the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036), section 236 frowns on encroachment on state lands and criminalizes such acts," he emphasized.

He stated that the Lands Commission as the managers of public/state lands under the 1992 constitution was performing its statutory functions to recover all encroached state lands.

He further disclosed that the government had established a Public Lands Protection Team to regularly survey and monitor public lands to ensure that they were free from encroachment.

The Public Lands Protection team include a representative of the ministry, a representative of the Lands Commission, a representative of National Security, two representatives from the Ghana Police Service, one from the Property Fraud Unit, a representative of Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority, a representative from the Attorney General's Department, a representative from AYNOK Holdings and representative of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council.