“It’s mindless”: Ghana MPs demand probe after demolition of Bulgarian Embassy in Accra

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Opposition MPs in Ghana are demanding a full scale parliamentary probe over the demolishing of the Bulgarian Embassy in the country’s capital Accra.

North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who is leading the charge has described the action by authorities as an aggressively mindless attack on the people of the European country.

He also called out Cantonments Police Station of deploying its personnel to supervise the exercise.

The MP who made this known on his Facebook page on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, also alleged that the Honorary Consul, Mr. Nicolaas C.M. van Staalduinen was also assaulted in his effort to restrain them.

“According to eyewitnesses, the armed rogue elements with extra fortification from deviant land guards and errant personnel allegedly from the Cantonments Police Station had the sheer effrontery in broad daylight to evict Bulgarian Embassy staff, throw out inviolable assets belonging to the Bulgarians and assault the Honorary Consul, Mr Nicolaas C.M. van Staalduinen in his effort to restrain them,” he said.

“Valuables including generators, computers, printers, refrigerators, archival documents which represent a treasure trove of deep historical bonds and a stash of vital diplomatic exchanges were not spared by the marauding encroachers.”

Mr Ablakwa insists that the development amounts to courting war with the Bulgarians.

He said the ‘mafia-style’ operation on the East Cantonment building is “even more shocking, exceedingly lawless, provocative.”

Attached to the Facebook post was a series of correspondence between the Embassy, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Lands Commission concerning the restoration and affirmation efforts of the Embassy by Bulgarian authorities.

On the back of these, Mr. Ablakwa says the operation constitutes a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

He, however, revealed that the Minority will demand a full-scale investigation into the “bizarre circumstances with the view to identifying all the conspirators and bringing them to justice.”

Back in 2020, armed men reportedly stormed the compound of the Nigerian High Commission compound in Accra and destroyed some buildings under construction.

This was after a businessman claimed that he owned the land where the building was being put up.

This sparked a row between the two countries, and President Akufo-Addo had to apologise for the unfortunate development.

He lamented a similar incident inflicted on the Nigerian Embassy in 2020, which according to him, more or less ruined the neighbourly relationship between that country and Ghana.

He went further to disclose that, to appease the Nigerian authorities, the Ghanaian taxpayer is currently funding the reconstruction of the Nigerian Embassy.

SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH with additional files from myjoyonline.com