The Parliamentary Service has stated that there was an attempt to sell the Speaker of Parliament’s official residence at Cantonments in Accra and has therefore welcomed the decision by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to investigate who made the alleged attempt.
Last Monday, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin at a breakfast forum had alleged, “many of you don’t know that even the residence of the Speaker was almost sold to private sector. Actually it was given out, it is when they went to register that Land’s Commission identified that, that is the residence of the Speaker. Luckily I was inside so it was safe,” he said.
But in a reaction, the Lands Commission stated “at no point in time was the said property sold to a private developer by the Lands Commission,” the acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Benjamin Arthur stated in a press statement dated November 20, 2023, signed and issued on Monday evening in reaction to the Speaker’s allegation.
In a press release dated Wednesday, November 22, 2023, supporting what the Speaker said last Monday, the Parliamentary Service explained: “The potential buyer proceeded to the Lands Commission for the necessary due diligence and realised the status of the property. That was when Mr. Speaker got to know about it,” it said.
It said “the reactions by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Lands Commission so far have not tackled the subject matter of the alleged sale.”
The Parliamentary Service’s press release dated November 22, 2023, was signed and issued by Director of Media Relations, David Sebastian Damoah.
“A visit to the official residence of Rt. Hon. Speaker will unveil that almost all the surrounding buildings and accompanying parcels of land have been sold out to private developers. High-rise apartments have been constructed all around, leaving the Speaker’s residence as an island and endangering the safety and security of the Rt. Hon. Speaker,” the Parliamentary Service added in the press release.
“A trip down memory lane reveals that sometime in 2019, the official accommodation of a sitting Clerk to Parliament located in Cantonments, was sold to a private developer. Other properties assigned to parliament have suffered similar fate,” it added.
Source: GraphicOnline
