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The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has vehemently denied engaging in
indiscriminate sale of any of its lands and properties.
A statement signed by GAF's Acting Director of Public Relations,
Lieutenant Colonel E. Aggrey-Quarshie said the various allegations
which have been leveled against the GAF administration are either
"false or half-truths."
A group called Alliance for Safeguarding the Integrity of the Security
Services (ASISS) earlier this week alleged that the Armed Forces was
indiscriminately selling its properties.
ASISS listed a number of lands and properties that they claim had been
sold or given to private developers including the No.1 Roman ridge
residence, Army officers Mess, 1 Drake Avenue, Labadi Villa's land and
Teshie Camp (portions have been sold).
They therefore demanded an explanation saying, "these properties
belong to the nation, and citizens have the right to know all
circumstances surrounding their sale" and further threatened that "if
no satisfactory and reasonable reasons are given, we shall use all
means at our disposal to stop private developments taking place on
those properties."
But according to Lt. Col. Aggrey-Quarshie, the Force has not "sold
anything so if they have anything to prove that we've sold something
to anybody, they should bring it out."
He disclosed that GAF was undertaking a number of expansion and
developmental projects for the benefits of the men and women of the
Force so "if we are undertaking these projects and you say we have
stolen this land, then I think they are not being fair to us or they
don't know what they are talking about."
In an interview on Eyewitness News, Lt. Col. Aggrey-Quarshie clarified
that GAF has entered a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement
with private developers to maximize the Force's 10 acre land at
Airport in Accra.
"Five acres of that will be given to them under some conditions in the
form of a lease and after some time, this thing can be
renegotiated…the Ghana Armed Forces is going to get 28 bungalows
instead of the 10 that is originally there, he said.
"They are going to use the five acres for their own project but we are
going to get 20 bungalows on the other five acre land and an
additional eight at Burma Camp," he added.
According to him, GAF is using its lands as equity while partners are
providing funds to undertake the projects for the benefit of the
entire Armed Forces.
He thus insisted that "we've not sold any land to anybody!" insisting
that "whatever arrangements we have done have gone through value for
money analysis…a lot of due diligence has gone into this whole
exercise."
The GAF however expressed regret that the signatories of the group who
are all retired military officers failed to check the "veracity of
their information" before making their allegations public.
Credit: Citifmonline.com
