From Alfred Adams
A decision by the Shama District Assembly (SDA) to pull down an office building belonging to the Shama Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been suspended.
This is a result of an intervention by the Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, who mediated to broker peace between the feuding NPP constituency executives on one hand, and officials of the SDA on the other over the location of the office structure.
The SDA, led by its Chief Executive, Mr. Enock Appiah, had threatened to pull down the NPP office on the grounds that the party did not have a permit to put up the office, which is along the Inchaban road.
This led to the NPP executives eventually petitioning the Regional Minister over the issue. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the Constituency Chairman of the party, Mr. Joseph Amoah, said: “We wish to inform you that the matter has been resolved by the Regional Minister, and our office is not going to be demolished.”
The party Chairman said that the office took six months to be completed, and at no point did was any query raised by the SDA over the location of the structure. He added that the party applied to the SDA for a permit to put up the structure, but after a period of six months, the assembly failed to reply.
However, the party went ahead to build the structure in line with LI 1630, which stipulated that a developer could start a project if an Assembly failed to communicate its acceptance or otherwise of an application.
Chairman Amoah further told the press conference that during the construction of the building, technical officers from the SDA came to the site to offer their technical advice, which to the chairman constituted consent.
“If you do not approve of a structure, why do you make recommendations for changes,” he asked. But in a telephone interview, the Chief Executive Officer of the SDA, Mr. Enock Appiah, denied that the Regional Minister had brokered a truce between the NPP executives and officials of the SDA.
According to the DCE, the Minister, who intervened in the matter, made recommendations that some internal structural adjustments be made in the building. However, the basic recommendations put forward by the Minister have not been followed.