Accra, March 19, GNA – A Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, has directed a private developer, Dr Adu-Ampomah, to halt all building activities on a parcel of land belonging to the Bulgarian Embassy.
He gave the directive when he visited the construction site in Accra with a team to witness the building contractor flouting the rules and regulations regarding building on the land in question.
Speaking to the Caretaker, Mr Owusu-Bio ordered that the construction works must stop while the litigation over the ownership of the land was settled in court.
He stated that the Bulgarian Embassy had a sublease of 10 years of the land, which was yet to expire.
“We are aware of a litigation between the Embassy and the Developer so if anything at all, in the interim, nobody must be here working,” the Deputy Minister said.
“When we heard of this, we asked the Lands Commission to put a ‘Stop Work’ notice on the premises but our attention has been drawn to the fact that those notices have been removed”.
Mr Owusu-Bio explained that the Lands Commission was constitutionally mandated to stop the private developer from working and advised that the owner of the structure stopped work while investigations continued.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, on his part, said the private developer had no government support to continue building and must stop work with immediate effect.
Also present was the Technical Director of Lands at the Ministry, Mr Maxwell Nsafoa.
GNA