The W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra has allegedly been leased to a private developer for the next 50 years, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, has disclosed.
He is therefore calling on the public to stage a demonstration against the handing over ceremony of the place slated for August 27, 2024, to kick against the sale of the place.
This, he says, will help stop the sale of the Centre to the supposed private developer.
Speaking on ‘Maakye‘, the morning show on Onua TV Monday, July 15, 2024, the lawmaker indicated that it was time Ghanaians stood against the ongoing state capture which has characterised the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.
“We will have to rise else Du Bois Centre will go. So, for Du Bois Centre, on 27th August, when President Akufo-Addo wants to do the handing over, all of us will go and demonstrate so that they can’t do the handing over to protect that land,” he stated.
He further called on residents of Wa, the Upper West regional capital, to rise and demonstrate against the sale of the Parks and Gardens land that has been given out to a private developer to construct a filling station.
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“The guy constructing the filling station in Wa, those listening to us, arise, it is Parks and Gardens land, arise to protect the land. The Minister said in Parliament that it was Lands Commission that orchestrated that sale because it is their land. We all have to rise up against all these lands that are being sold,” he stated.
According to the legislator, the government has breached the constitution for not giving the owners of the land the first choice of purchase if the purpose for the purchase is no more in place.
“And the original land owners, they need to rise because under Article 20(5) of the Constitution, it is very clear that if government buys a land for a public purpose and you no longer have use for that land, it’s reversed to the owners. So the Parks and Gardens land should have been reversed to the Ga Dangme people. The Constitution is so clear and it’s being breached. So we all need to arise and respect the Constitution to protect the land because the development is awful,” he added.
The MP added that he cannot be certain if the seat of the Presidency, the Jubilee House, still belongs to Ghana owing to recent State capture under this administration, adding that the Teshie shooting range for the Ghana Armed Forces in Accra has also been sold out.
“Due to the discoveries I’m making, I cannot really vouch what really is in the name of Ghana. Are you aware the Teshie shooting range is gone? Prison barracks is also gone on a PPP arrangement. So, I really don’t know probably apart from Jubilee House and even that I’m not sure. So the state capture is not a joke, everything is going,” he lamented.
His revelation come in the wake of attempts to sell off the Social Security and National Insurance Trust’s (SSNIT) 60 per cent share in some four hotels which was halted after Organised Labour declared strike over the sale until that transaction was aborted.
‘Real power belongs to the people’ – Ablakwa on discontinuation of SSNIT hotels sale
