* Our failure to secure land documents an oversight – Onyeama
Nigeria has expressed satisfaction with the initial steps being taken by the government of Ghana to address the demolition of the Nigerian embassy in Accra.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, announced in Abuja on Thursday, Nigeria has taken note of efforts by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayokor Botchwey, to calm the situation.
He, however, expressed concerns that reports indicated that the perpetrators of the crime were unhindered and had a lot of time despite calls to the Ghanaian authorities by the Charge d’Affaires of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana.
Onyeama added that further reports indicated that the security operatives who were on ground during the demolition seemed to have been supportive of those carrying out the violation on Nigeria’s Sovereign territory in Ghana.
Nonetheless, he noted that the perpetrators have been arrested and arraigned in court and the government of Ghana had apologised and equally promised to rectify all the pending paper works that led to the misinformation of the Lands Commission in Ghana.
“The government of Ghana has assumed total responsibility, and with the apology, have made it clear that they will be responsible for restitution – rebuilding the building to the state that it was when it was destroyed.
“So, this is to say that the matter has been satisfactorily resolved and that at very highest level as I mentioned, President Muhammadu Buhari personally engaged in this process.
“The President of Ghana has apologised, those who carried out the action have been arrested and charged to court and the Ghana government has agreed to rebuild the property.
“So, we would like to put the matter to rest and to acknowledge the very speedy reaction of the Ghanaian government and to say that we will now continue to further strengthen relations between our two countries, take lessons learnt from what has happened and move ahead without recriminations,” Onyeama said.
Meanwhile, Onyeama also admitted that officials of Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana, committed an error that culminated in the demolition of a structure within the premises of the High Commission.
The minister noted that the officials failed to take necessary action to get requisite documents for ownership of the parcel of land the structure was built on.
He said the Nigerian High Commission failed to obtain legal title for the land, which it had paid for in Year 2000.
Besides, the minister said it also failed to obtain necessary approvals before erecting the building.
But he emphasised that such error was not an enough reason for the pulling down of the building by a Ghanaian businessman last weekend.
“It was clearly a mistake on our side. What the Ghanaians said is that owing to the fact that our High Commission did not obtain a lease, following the allocation letter they got after paying for the plot of land, nor did we proceed to obtain a land title certificate and we didn’t even get a building permit for the new property.
“When other people came claiming ownership of the land, the commission did not see anything in the register because the lease title had not been obtained. It is clearly an error on the side of our High Commission.
“We would learn from that. But clearly, our documenting and record-keeping and processes would need to be sharpened. In terms of how we deal with our officers, this is something that happened in 2000. That was 20 years ago.
“The officials are no longer in service. We rather just learn from our mistake and ensure we have more rigour whenever we are engaging in legal issues in all our missions.
“The Ghanaian government has directed the necessary administrative procedures that were not followed should be done now, meaning that title deeds be formerly given to the High Commission of Nigeria since the documentary proof acknowledged by the Ghanaian land registry of receipt of payment on the property has been done many years ago.”