By Our Roving Scouts
In an official press release issued by the Media Relations Department of the Parliamentary Service, dated 22nd November, 2023, the Parliamentary Service invited the Ghanaian public to take ” a trip down memory lane” by intimating “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”.
The Parliamentary Service’s Media Relations Department’s press release was tailored to give credibility to the Speaker of Parliament’s earlier allegation that there had been an attempt to “sell” his official residence.
Meanwhile, in a letter dated 23rd. November, 2023, addressed to the Clerk of Parliament, the Lands Commission has debunked the claims made by the Media Relations Department of the Parliamentary Service.
” On the specific allegation of the Clerk to Parliament’s accommodation being sold in 2019, records at the Lands Commission indicate that the property in question, House No. 90, Sixth Circular Road, Cantonments, was granted to a private developer in the year 2015, based on a letter of approval from the Ministry of Works and Housing, dated 21st. July, 2015, as part of the Accra Properties Redevelopment Scheme, subject to the relocation of the serving officer in occupation” , underscored the Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, the signatory of the letter to the Clerk to Parliament.
He continued: “Consequently, and pursuant to the said letter, a lease dated 18th. August, 2015, was granted to the private developer over the said property”.
The Acting Executive Secretary, Surv. Benjamin Arthur reminded the Clerk to Parliament that, “pursuant to the Speaker of Parliament’s letter dated 11th. October, 2019 on the subject matter, a number of engagements were had with the Parliamentary Service on the subject matter, including a meeting in the year 2020”.
In conclusion, the Acting Executive Secretary assured “the Rt. Hon. Speaker, the august House of Parliament and the Parliamentary Service, that it is ready to work with the Service to resolve all issues involving properties that the Service has interest in, particularly, the alleged attempted sale of the Speaker’s official residence, and ensure an efficient management of the public lands of our country”.
In another development, the Research Desk of The New Crusading GUIDE, has intercepted records of the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Lands Commission itself, which virtually corroborate the position articulated by the Lands Commission in its 23rd November, 2023 letter to the Clerk to Parliament.
A letter signed by Alhaji Yahaya Yakubu (Director, Housing) on behalf of the then Minister, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, dated 23rd. June, 2015 addressed to the Regional Lands Officer, Lands Commission, Accra, indicated to the latter that ” the said property falls within the Accra Residential Properties Redevelopment Scheme currently occupied by a serving officer, who will have to be relocated”.
” We therefore wish to remind you to make provision for an amount of Six Hundred Thousand Cedis ( GHC 600,000. 00) for a replacement bungalow”.
A letter from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, dated 21st. July, 2015; signed by Prof. Bruce Banoeng-Yakubo, for the Minister, Nii Osah Mills, communicated the Minister’s approval for “GOVERNMENT LEASE APPLICATION PLOT NO. 90, 6TH. CIRCULAR ROAD, CANTONMENTS-ACCRA ” to the Greater Accra Regional Lands Officer.
“Pursuance to the request that the Minister grants consent to the application for lease on Plot No. 90, at 6th. Circular Road, Cantonments, Accra by Rona Construction Company, I AM DIRECTED BY THE HON. MINISTER FOR LANDS AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO INFORM YOU THAT APPROVAL HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ENABLE THE REGIONAL LANDS COMMISSION PROCESS THE APPLICATION”, articulated Prof. Banoeng-Yakubo, the then Chief Director of the Ministry.
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Records of the Lands Commission, show that subsequently, a lease agreement was consumated on 18th. August, 2015 between the State/President represented by Nii Okaija Adamafio, then the Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional Lands Commission and RONA CONSTRUCTION COMPANY with its registered office at House No. K/06, Ahodwa- Kumasi and of P. O. Box 4268, Ahodwo-Kumasi.
The two Ministerial letters and relevant excerpts of the Lease Agreement under reference, are published in today’s edition of The New Crusading GUIDE (see pages 1 and 3 and, 4)
Stay tuned for more interesting revelations of what actually happened between the private developer and the Parliamentary Service from 2016 to 2021 when the private developer sought to take over the property, lawfully and legally sold to them (private developer) by the mandated State Agencies.
Apparently, it was in 2021 under the leadership of Speaker Bagbin as Chairman of the Parliamentary Service Board, that the private developer was able to take possession of the said property!
