News:
September 13, 2017
Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza has threatened to sue the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), if it goes further with its demolition exercise of Ghana’s old Parliament building.
As to when, he noted that he is talking to his lawyers on Wednesday 2017 and will let Ghanaians know the next move.
According to Mr. Agbodza, he cannot understand the kind of justice CHRAJ will administer if they cannot protect a National heritage of this Country, “the fact that you have been given a state property to work with does not mean you can do anything with it”
Is just like when a chief director of a state institution gets a vehicle he can just go out there and rent it out to anybody, he said.
He lamented that the demolition is an embarrassment to CHRAJ, because the Accra Metropolitan Assembly boss has indicated that, they did apply for permit to undertake the demolition exercise but permit has not been given yet.
Again the path they have taken is misbehavior because they do not have the permission to do that, “I will take all steps to protect that site; they cannot just build an office there because they need space”.
“Parliament needs space, some MPs do not have space at the moment that does not mean we can annex all other buildings around Parliament House and stay in it, and they must come out quickly and tell us why they did what they did”.
The demolished building is an old structure that housed the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly from 1951 when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became the leader of Government Business under the British. Kwame Agbodza said it was a heritage site that needed to be preserved for future generations.
The Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal, defended the action saying although they failed to secure a permit from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly before pulling down the structure, it was necessary for safeguarding the health and safety of the workers of CHRAJ.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com