Appoint Adentan MCE now’
The Dean of Studies & Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies at Madina in Accra, Mr Eric Oduro Osae, has appealed to the President to appoint a substantive Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Adentan Assembly to forestall any administrative lapses.
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He said a substantive MCE for the assembly could have resolved “the unfortunate incident” leading to the rejection of the redevelopment master plan for the Aviation land at Adentan.
Local Government Act
Speaking in an interview, Mr Osae said the rejection of the master plan by the assembly was in the right direction, stressing that Section 49 of the Local Government Act 462 of 1993 says the assembly has the right to contest what such a land is meant for.
“The assembly gives permit to carry out physical development in its jurisdiction,” he said; adding that even if it were a directive from the central government, it should have been given through the local authority, which was the assembly.
“That is what the decentralisation process is all about. Instructions cannot be issued from the central government directly without recourse to the assembly,” he explained.
Re-zoning
Mr Osae said with reference to the Aviation land, it was clear that the land was re-zoned for business purposes, and under the Local Government Act , the assembly was the planning authority.
He said any re-zoning of the land should be done by the district planning authority of the assembly and approved by the general assembly, therefore, there could be no reason for what happened at the Adentan Municipal Assembly.
Rejection
The assembly, at an emergency meeting last Thursday in a nine-three majority decision with one abstention, rejected a master site plan for the redevelopment of the Aviation land and referred it to the Statutory Planning Committee of the assembly for a re-design before presenting it for approval.
Under the Adentan Sub-Urban Centre Redevelopment Project, 3,000 apartments, a shopping mall, hospital, schools and hotels, as well as other business activities, have been earmarked to improve the living conditions of the people in Adentan and its surrounding communities.
Action of then MCE
Touching on the action of the then Municipal Chief Executive, Madam Nubyl Kakra Vanlare, who chaired the Statutory Planning Committee, Mr Osae was of the opinion that the MCE was performing her duties and, therefore, her act could not be referred to as unconstitutional.
“Her term had expired, that was true, but she was still performing her functions as an agent of the assembly, awaiting directives from the Presidency,” he said.
Mr Osae contended that where Madam Vanlare faulted was her failure to refer the redevelopment plan to the general assembly for approval.
He added that even if the time was too close, she, together with the Town and Country Planning officer of the assembly, could have convened an emergency meeting to present the plan for approval.
On the demolition exercise
On the recent demolition exercise carried out at the Aviation land at Adentan, displacing hundreds of squatters, he said it was in the right direction, stressing that what was wrong should be seen as wrong, “and we should not be seen to be normalising illegalities.”
He advised the assembly to take immediate steps to prevent the displaced squatters from “invading the other side of the road.”
Hundreds of illegal structures and buildings on a 260-acre land belonging to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority at Adentan were last Monday razed down to pave way for the redevelopment of the land.
Over five bulldozers, supervised by heavily armed police officers, demolished the structures and buildings.
Writer’s email: [email protected]