Parliament has welcomed the decision by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to investigate the attempt to sell the official residence of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
Parliament anticipates that the inquiry will unveil those involved in the alleged sale.
A statement from David Sebastian Damoah, Director of the Media Relations Department, expressed Parliament’s preparedness for the investigation.
“We are encouraged by the decision of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to investigate this matter and hope the investigations will establish who attempted to sell and who the potential buyer was.”
“Transparency in this matter is of utmost importance for the sake of public confidence in state institutions,” the statement read.
The clarification followed media reports causing confusion about the purported sale of the Speaker’s official residence. The reports stemmed from remarks made by Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin during the Speaker’s Breakfast Forum on Monday.
Damoah, however, emphasized that the Speaker did not confirm the sale but revealed that the property was almost sold. The potential buyer had initiated due diligence at the Lands Commission, and discovered the unresolved status of the property.
“The Speaker did not say that the Speaker’s official residence had been sold. What he said was that it was almost sold,” Damoah clarified.
Drawing attention to the precarious situation surrounding the Speaker’s residence, Damoah pointed out, “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, endangering the safety and security of the Rt. Hon. Speaker.”
The statement also referenced a similar incident in 2019 when the official accommodation of a sitting Clerk to Parliament was sold to a private developer in Cantonments.