The Ghanaian High Commissioner in Nigeria, Iva Denoo, was on Monday summoned by the Federal Government over the demolition of a section of the Nigerian embassy in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a Twitter post, said that he had asked the Ghanaian official to give an “urgent explanation” on the recent attacks on Nigeria’s diplomatic residence and the staff in Accra.
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Onyeama tweeted:
Summoned the Chargè d’ Affaires of the High Commission of #Ghana to Nigeria, Ms Iva Denoo to demand urgent explanation on the recent attacks on a residential building in our diplomatic premises and reinforcement of security around diplomatic premises and staff.
Armed men, last Friday, reportedly stormed the Nigerian High Commissioner’s residence which has a block of uncompleted apartments meant for visiting diplomats and forcibly turned away staff who were present at the scene.
Reports revealed the building was demolished by the men who claimed that their actions were backed by the Ghanaian National Security while the police were said to have watched without interference.
Onyeama, following the attacks, vowed to investigate the demolition by engaging the Ghanaian government to “demand urgent action to find the perpetrators and provide adequate protection for Nigerians and their property in Ghana.”
Meanwhile, the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier denounced the attack describing the development as “a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR, 19610).”
Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, a Ghanaian monarch, claimed the land on which the Nigerian High Commissioner’s residence stood, belongs to the Osu Stool; a council of local chiefs, and was not state-owned.
According to Dowuona, the land was taken over by a certain Nigerian business “with the political backing of the Nigerian embassy” without paying for ownership to the OSU Stool that “has the mandate to grant lease be it expired or otherwise.”
The Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prior to the demolition, reportedly called out the Nigerian Government for failing to renew the affected property after the expiration of its lease thus, “the property reverted to the state in compliance with Article 258 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, explained that property under reference was in use by the Federal Ministry of Finance on leasehold, since 1957, and was later bequeathed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
