Why has Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah not been arrested? – Ablakwa wonders

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP, North Tongu, has been asking why President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s appointee, Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, has not been arrested after demolishing the Bulgarian Embassy with police protection.

According to the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Dr. Adu-Ampomah’s action cannot convince anyone that it is was not hatched at the very high echelons of government.

“After reading this press statement from Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you wonder why Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah & his collaborators were not long arrested but were allowed to terrorize diplomats, demolish their embassy & illegally erect an apartment complex. Thuggish lawlessness!” Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said.

Chronicling the activities of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) member against the diplomatic community, the NDC MP wrote on his Facebook timeline:

“Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, who is best known for donating motorbikes to the NPP during elections, remains at post as President Akufo-Addo’s appointee at the National Development Planning Commission after demolishing the Bulgarian Embassy with police protection, defying orders, and commencing the construction of an apartment complex, tearing down a stop work notice from the Lands Commission and charging his workers to continue building; how does this administration convince anybody including the diplomatic community that this grave violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is not a much bigger conspiracy hatched at very high echelons of government?”

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on Tuesday, March 15, accused some personnel from the Cantonments Police Station responsible for protecting Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah while he demolished the Bulgarian Embassy in Accra.

The MP added that the Honorary Consul, Nicolaas C.M. van Staalduinen was also assaulted in his effort to restrain them.

Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah’s action, experts say constitutes a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

But the government has dissociated itself from the demolition of the Bulgarian Embassy.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the action was executed by a private developer.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the Deputy Minister, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, stated that the “government has got no hand in whatever the developer is doing.”

The Foreign Affairs Ministry insisted that all processes so far to secure the parcel of land for the foreign mission have proven futile.

The Embassy is said to have leased the property from the late Theophilus Kofi Leighton on February 1, 1979, and subsequently extended for 50 more years from 1983 during which the embassy paid 1 million old Cedis with the option of renewal for another 50 years.

The lease expires in 2033, per the Ministry’s statement.

Providing clarity on the matter, Mr. Apramtwum-Sarpong explained that “upon the demise of the landlord, the Administrator of the Estate of the late Kofi Leighton attempted to forcefully repossess the property over alleged non-payment of rent arrears by the Bulgaria Embassy notwithstanding the latter’s full payment for the lease to the late Leighton.”