Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister
It is emerging that the controversy about a fence wall standing in the way of a busy traffic route close to the offices of Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (ARCC) has no basis because the land in the area actually belongs to a private developer.
It is believed that the owner of the said land took the action on the basis that the public link road was illegally constructed on his land, which is meant for the development of an estate.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, has however allayed the concerns of the general public and residents, admitting that the blocked road at the Regional Coordinating Council was not a deliberate act by the Council to frustrate commuters or the general public.
He explained that his own investigations, corroborated by the regional Urban Roads Director, had revealed that neither the construction of the wall nor the road was funded by the Government of Ghana.
According to the Minister, he had also checked from the offices of the Ashanti Regional Lands Commission, and his findings were that the land was genuinely owned by a private developer even before the said link road was constructed.
“Before this came into the news, I had already stopped the private developer to show documents of the land in question, which he proved. I then followed up to the Lands Commissions’ Office where they confirmed that it is his and that the area was rezoned,” he told the Daily Statesman.
The Ashanti Regional Minister believes that destroying the private developer’s property over roadblock will incur judgement debt, if the road had to be maintained.
The Ashanti Regional Urban Roads Directorate has also confirmed that the road was constructed through the private developer’s land illegally.
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