Govt asks private developer to halt work on building belonging to the Bulgarian Embassy
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assures Bulgaria that land issues will be resolved
The Bulgarian Ambassador to Ghana, Yanko Yordanov, has expressed worry over the prolonged nature of a case regarding its property in Accra that was pulled down by some private developers in 2017.
The ambassador explained that while his country and Ghana have had many decades of cordial diplomatic working relationships, the slow pace at resolving this incident has raised concerns.
The ambassador made this known in a Zoom interview with GhanaWeb.
“We wanted to find a way to sort out the issue of our property in Accra in a very amicable way, using only diplomatic channels for this and we were in a good dialogue but since I received my (sic) as Ambassador of Bulgaria to Ghana, I tried and I engaged with a lot of Ghanaian institutions and we’ve tried to build a very cooperative partnership.
“Unfortunately, the issue is still there, it remains a very complicated one but during the ceremony when I presented my credentials to His Excellency Mr. Akufo-Addo, I raised the issue with him and I’ve received his personal promise that the issue will be sorted out favourably, very soon.
“And thereafter, we started the cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but up until now, the issue is not resolved but we patiently want to insist on the full implementation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which is the key international document defining the responsibility of the host state and of the sending state,” he said.
Yanko Yordanov however said that he is optimistic that the matter will see an end soon and that both countries can continue to build diplomacy in other areas.
“We definitely understand our part of the responsibility of ensuring our security of our properties and we are ready to do our part but we can in a very constructive manner find the way with Ghana’s institutions to solve this issue once and for all,” he said.
Earlier, GhanaWeb reported that a Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, has directed a private developer, Dr. Adu Ampomah, to as a matter of urgency halt all building activities on a parcel of Land owned by the Bulgarian Embassy.
The Deputy Minister said this when he stormed the construction site in Accra on Wednesday, 16th March, 2022 to witness the flouting of regulations and rules of law by the Building Contractor and his clients.
Speaking to the caretaker of the site, Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio insisted that ongoing works at the construction site must be put on hold while a dispute over the ownership of the land is settled at the court.
He disclosed that the Bulgarian Embassy has a sublease of 10 years which has not yet expired. " We are aware of a litigation between the Embassy and the Developer. So if anything at all, in the interim, nobody must be here working".
"When we heard of this, we asked the Lands Commission to put a "stop work" notice on the premises but our attention has been drawn to the fact that those notices have been removed," he said.
He stressed that the Lands Commission is constitutionally mandated to stop the private developer from working and admonished that the owner of the structure stops work whiles investigations are ongoing.
On his part, the Deputy Minister for foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong said the private developer has no backing of the Government to continue building and must stop work with immediate effect.
The Deputy Minister was accompanied on this exercise by the Technical Director of Lands at the Ministry, Mr. Maxwell Nsafoa.
Watch GhanaWeb’s full interview with the Bulgarian Ambassador to Ghana, Yanko Yordanov, here:
