Minority To Summon Trade Minister Over Trade Fair Demolitions

The Minority in Parliament has indicated its intent to have the house summon the Minister of Trade, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, over the recent demolitions at the Trade Fair Center in Accra.

Deputy Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee, Yussif Suleman, gave the indication today in a radio interview monitored by WhatsUp News.

“On Friday [February 21] we are going to call on the speaker to invite the Minister to come and give us reasons why they have destroyed these companies,” he said.

According to him, the demolitions are thoughtless actions that could incur Ghana huge judgment debt if the affected tenants decide to sue in court.

According to him, if that happens the NDC will ensure that all the people who oversaw the demolitions are punished by a future NDC government.

“Anytime there is a change of government, we will let the law works. It won’t be as usual where government will dole out money and pay such debts and allow those who would have supervised this kind of recklessness to go scot-free.

“Those who would have supervised this will be prosecuted. The law will take its course, because if you are entrusted to do such a work, and you sit and allow government to lose money, definitely you would have to pay for that. So that next time, whether it is government A or B, we will learn a lesson from that,” he said.

The opposition NDC too has condemned the demolitions saying it is high handed. “As a party we condemn in no uncertain terms, this draconian demolition exercise which was carried out by the National Security and the authorities of Trade Fair. It is illegal, improper, unconscionable, unfair and barbaric,” wrote NDC Communication Officer Samuel Gyamfi in a satement.

Mr Gyamfi disclosed that the NDC “will be taking the matter up in the course of the week.”

The demolitions were carried out Sunday night by operatives of the National Security establishment. According tenants affected, they had not been given adequate notice.