Queen Mothers in the Greater Accra Region have said they are displeased with the way some chiefs are involved in questionable land sales and some of these fraudulent transactions had created confusion and disputes.
The queens said chiefs had not been involving them in land transactions and made it clear that they would fight for their rights as tradition and modernity demands in ensuring that there is sanity and fair play in land administration.
They were contributing to a Capacity Building Seminar for Queens and female chiefs in the Greater Accra Region organized by the Project Coordinating Unit of the Second Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2) under the ministry of Lands and Natural Resources at Dodowa.
The queens appealed to law enforcement agencies to arrest chiefs instead of land guards. They said the menace of land guards, especially in the Greater Accra Region, would be a thing of the past if chiefs who patronize the services of the land guards were arrested instead of the land guards.
The queens spoke against customary and cultural practices that delegate more power to chiefs than queens in the administration of land and said the inheritance system also discriminated against them.
Mrs Sarah Antwi-Boasiako, the Social Development and Gender Specialist of the Second Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2), said the Project is designed to empower women and to mainstream gender into the land administration tenure in the country.
She said the current situation which denies title and ownership of land to women who produce over 80 per cent of food and also form over 51 per cent of the population ought to be reconsidered to ensure fundamental human rights and justice.
Mrs Antwi-Boasiako said it was for these and other related reasons that LAP-2, with the active support of the World Bank, the Government of Ghana and the Canadian International Development Agency, has embarked on a major onslaught in bringing women up-to-speed on land administration.