Fresh posers emerge over Nigeria High Commission demolition
By John Eche
Fresh posers have emerged in relation to the news report about a demolition assault on the premises of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana.
In the clip of the report which has since gone viral, the Ghanaian authorities are said to have stood idly by as the assault was being carried out.
While the Ghanaian authorities have since disassociated themselves from the incident, however, feelers from the country suggest that the issues actually run deeper than is being portrayed and that in depth investigations are required in order that some emanating posers that are connected to the story and incident can be cleared.
One, who owns the property in question; is it the Nigerian High Commission or an individual Nigerian businessman and what was exactly being constructed there? Residential flats for the High Commissioner and his staff or a business development?
Two, does the High Commission have documentary papers in its name which prove that it had acquired or been granted the said land either by the previous owner, the holding community or the Government of Ghana?
Three, was there a previous property on the land in question that was pulled down to make room for the new property that has now suffered demolition? Were all of the required consultations and negotiations conducted with the previous owners before that displacement and reconstruction process was being undertaken?
Four, is the High Commission really unaware of the many attempts to call its attention to the need to discuss and resolve the underlying issues before things deteriorated to this stage?
Noted one commentator that The Difference spoke to in Accra: ‘indeed this is a quite puzzling incident. Land matters on their own are quite difficult issues in Ghana. Even the government has to pass through quite a maze of negotiations to get land for its own purposes as land is usually held by communities. But even at that, it will indeed be quite an issue if this land in question had not been properly contracted by the High Commission itself. It really would be messy.’
Efforts to get the responses of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana and the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to these emanating posers were yet unsuccessful as at press time.
in a related issue,Mr Adekunle Akinlabi,Government and international relations scholar urged Nigeria to as a matter of urgency take a drastic stand on the matter by taking a more pragmatic view to her foreign policy so as to prevent the Accra demolition embarrassment in the future..
An impeccable media source told The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria that there were so many things that had happened in recent times between Nigeria and Ghana that were not in the public space but some of this will be answered very shortly..
Meanwhile feelers suggests as at press time that Caste Osu of Accra,Ghana obviously rattled by the issue are doing everything to solve the problems caused by the incident with a short gun diplomatic solution