The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, Albert Boakye Okyere, has stated that recent allegations against him are vile propaganda to destroy him and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He explained that certain faceless people in the municipality had ganged up against him and his office since his appointment.
Mr Okyere wondered why a sixty-acre land in Ashaiman, allocated to the Sentuo Group Limited by the Tema Development Company (TDC) for the construction of an ultra-modern industrial and commercial hub should be associated with him.
The MCE, therefore, refuted allegations that he sold the parcel of state land to a private developer.
He explained that there was no iota of truth in the allegations because the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly does not own land and can therefore not sell any state land.
This comment came on the heels of a demonstration staged in Ashaiman last Monday by some supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who alleged that the Chief Executive had sold a parcel of land along the Accra-Tema Motorway to an individual.
The leader of the group, Thomas Abotibila Adongo, claimed that the alleged action of the MCE would make the party unpopular and cause its electoral fortunes in the 2020 general election in the municipality.
But Mr Okyere insisted that Ashaiman was a government acquisition zone and that all lands by law were vested in the TDC.
Mr Ian Okwei Tablor, Head of Protocol and Administration of TDC, corroborated the MCE’s assertion, saying the said land was given out by the TDC to a private developer for the government’s One-District, One- Factory project.
“The Tema Development Company Ltd has laid bare the fact that the Ashaiman Assembly has no hand in the allocation of sixty-acre land to Sentuo Group Limited, he said.
He explained that the “sixty acre of land, which was within the company’s acquisition area, was allocated to Sentuo Group Ltd by it (TDC Development Company Ltd) to construct an ultra-modern industrial and commercial hub under the government’s 1D1F private-driven programme”.
He noted that the industrial and commercial hub, which met the TDC Development Company Ltd’s land use for the area, would include a modern truck and bus terminal and shopping malls to serve the industries within the enclave.
“The land was allocated to Sentuo Group Ltd in August 2018, after the company had undergone necessary permitting processes under the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly.”
“TDC Development Company Ltd took into consideration the required land space for the motorway expansion project setbacks requirements and other service lines in the area, prior to the land allocation,” he said.
“When completed, the 1D1F would provide over 2,000 jobs to residents of Ashaiman” he added.
Meanwhile, the Industrial City King, Dr Nii Adjei Kraku ll, has stated that people claiming that the Ashaiman MCE was sabotaging the government’s flagship programmes in Ashaiman had been mischievous.
He, has therefore, appealed to the President to ignore the allegations that the said land was sold by the MCE.
By Ian Motey
