The Parliamentary Service of Ghana has waded into the saga involving the residence of the Speaker of Parliament.
The Parliamentary Service in a statement disclosed that buildings surrounding the Speaker’s residence have all been sold to private developers.
According to the service, high-rise apartments have been constructed all around, leaving the Speaker’s residence as an “island and endangering the safety and security of the Speaker.” This follows the disclosure by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, that his residence in Accra was almost sold to a private developer while he was still living there.
Speaking at the Speaker’s Breakfast Forum in Accra on Monday, November 20, 2023, he said this only came to the fore when the developer went to the Lands Commission to register the land.
The Lands Commission, in a statement issued on Monday, insisted that “at no point in time was the said property sold to a private developer by the Lands Commission.”
The Parliamentary Service, in a statement issued on Wednesday, indicated that “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.”
It, therefore, noted that transparency in the attempted sale of the Speaker’s residence was a matter of utmost importance for the sake of public confidence in state institutions.
Meanwhile, the Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, requested the presence of some top officials of the Lands Commission to obtain firsthand information on the attempted sale of Speaker Bagbin’s residence in Cantonments to a private developer.