Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has called on President Akufo-Addo to instruct the Lands Minister to freeze the further sale of state lands in the Tamale Metropolis until an investigation is done to justify it.
He claimed that lands belonging to institutions such as health, prisons, and education services were auctioned off to party activists, who then demanded that the lands be returned to the appropriate institutions.
The sale of state lands in the Metropolis has recently sparked public outrage, with the Tamale West Hospital’s lands being the most recent case.
”We are emphasising that whether it is Prison Service, whether it is Ghana Health Service, whether it’s the Forestry Commission, whether it’s the Ghana Education Service, all those lands that were vested in institutions, this government should not proceed further with their sale, without the concurrent, acceptance and approval of those institutions,” he added.
At a press conference to register the Minority Caucus’ displeasure at the situation, Mr Iddrisu bemoaned the what he sees as self-centeredness of the NPP government, which he said is not thinking of the future expansion of these state institutions, especially the West Hospital that serves majority of the populace in the area.
“So the West Hospital is now just this OPD and the mortuary? Where is the opportunity for a future expansion of it? Where is the opportunity for these women and children, tomorrow when they need health care?
“Look at this place, they are interested in selling it out to party activists. It is wrong today, wrong yesterday and wrong tomorrow and we think that there must be a reversal of those lands back to the institutions. As for Nana Akoffo Addo, whether he respects the tenancy of probity and of accountability time will tell,” he said.
He questioned the Akufo-Addo led government, that if these state lands had been sold haphazardly by his predecessors would there have been any land to be sold.
The Minority Leader said any selfless government would have turned state bungalows like those around the West Hospital into accommodation for health workers instead of selling them out to party cronies.
He alleged that lands at the Tema Free Zones secured by government with support from the World Bank in 2013 for the construction of the Tema ICT park is also been sold, describing it as a shameful act that should be condemned.
“I just got credible and unimpeachable information that even Tema Free Zones, where the World Bank supported the government in 2013, walk back in 2009, we started what was known as the Tema ICT park.” This morning, my understanding is that land is being offered for sale or has already been sold. That must be reversed,” he said.
