A handful of angry supporters of the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) yesterday besieged the state bungalow bought by chairman of the
opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey,
swearing that they will not allow him to occupy the building.
The house, which is still in the possession of the State, was
allocated to Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Nii Lantey
Vanderpuye, who had earlier sworn not to vacate the facility in spite of
a Supreme Court ruling in favour of the NPP Chairman, in a case filed
by two NDC ministers, Dr Edward Omane Boamah and Samuel Okudzeto
Ablakwa.
The court, by a 6-3 majority decision, held that the Minister of
Water Resources, Works and Housing, and the Lands Commission, did not
abuse their powers relating to the management of public lands when the
Lands Commission “at the request” of the Minister, leased the state
bungalow, which is located at Ringway in Accra, to Jake, under the Accra
Lands Redevelopment Programme.
Numbering between 15 and 20, the young men, who called themselves the
‘NDC Bomba Group’ in Nima, sporting brand new t-shirts of the NDC, said
they were there to “to defend the building”.
Apparently, they had been organized by someone to go and cause
confusion there, thinking the house was going to be handed over to Jake
immediately.
They were suspected to have been hired by an NDC capo, possibly Nii Lantey, the previous occupant who had been sent packing.
At the time they got to the house, wife of the Deputy Minister, Naa
Komley Vanderpuye and members of their family, were busily evacuating
their belongings from the place.
Nii Lantey was said to be out of the country, so he was not on hand for comment.
As early as 8:00am, most of the young men who were clad in NDC T-shirts had arrived at the venue, chanting war songs.
Leader of the group, who gave his name as Chief Bawa, said they were
there to protest against any attempt to hand over the house to Jake.
In their opinion, the purchase was wrong, insisting that it was a
case of conflict of interest, since he once occupied the same house.
Asked whether he and his colleagues were aware of the fact that the
Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Jake on the issue, a sarcastic
Chief Bawa said, “I’m sure people are aware that Supreme Court ruled in
favour of John Mahama and up to date you are hearing the noise in the
country; so what are you saying?”
Handing Over
Hours later, around 11:45am, two officials of the Prestige division
of the Public Works Department (PWD) arrived to take inventory of the
house.
They were the Assistant Chief Estate Manager, Akosua Agyapong and her
colleague, Assistant Chief Estate Officer, Emmanuel Djanie.
After going round to inspect the place, they took delivery of the
keys to the house and made the wife of the Deputy Minister sign a
document indicating a successful handing over.
They could however not tell when the bungalow would be handed over to the NPP Chairman.
According to Mr Djanie, that decision rests in the bosom of the Ministry of Works and Housing.
After handing over, Naa Komley hopped into her Ford Escape vehicle
with registration number GR 2495 -12 and left the scene, declining to
comment.
Moments later, the PWD officials drove everyone out of the house, placing the rooms and gates under lock and key.
Not even the supposed ‘defenders of the house’ could defy their instructions: They had no option but to also leave the premises.
It is not clear when the government and for that matter the PWD would formally hand over the house to Jake.
What is however certain is that the Supreme Court has ordered the
controversial bungalow to be given to the NPP Chairman whom it ruled had
bought it legally.
Security men have since been deployed to keep watch over the house.
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