My residence at Cantonments was sold to a private developer while I was in it – Bagbin

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has revealed that his Cantoments residence was sold to a private developer while he was still residing in it.

According to him, it took the effort of the Lands Commission to stop the sale of the property.

He said this at the Speaker’s Breakfast Forum held at the Swiss Spirit Alisa Hotel in Accra, on November 20, 2023.

Addressing the audience at the forum, Alban Bagbin highlighted the challenges faced by the parliament, particularly in terms of property loss.

He went on to reveal the alarming incident regarding his residence at Cantonment

“Many of you don’t know that even the residence of the speaker was almost sold to the private sector. Actually it was given out. It was when they went to register that the Lands Commission identified that that is the residence of the Speaker. Luckily, I was inside, so it was saved,” he said.

He further stressed the difficulties encountered by parliament in reclaiming properties and the ongoing struggle to secure land for the construction of parliamentary structures.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghana’s start of democratic journey is known to all and needs no further mention. This largely affected the development of parliamentary democracy. Unlike the executive and the judicial arms of government, we have had to be a number of times and we lost almost all our properties. So, we are now struggling to get even our lands for us to be able to put up some structures to accommodate parliament,” he added.

The Speaker’s Breakfast Forum was under the theme; “Thirty Years of Parliamentary Democracy under the Fourth Republic: Reflect on Citizen’s Engagement and the way forward”.