Samuel Atta Akyea, Minister of Works and Housing
The Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea has condemned in the strongest terms, the use of armed military men to evict some senior public servants from state bungalows located behind the Electoral Commission, in a manner that exposes them to public ridicule.
Mr Atta Kyea has promised to deal with those using the name of the presidency to perpetrate such unlawfulness.
Earlier this week, a combined team of military and police personnel reportedly from the Office of the Vice-President, attacked the residents and threw their belongings out.
Reacting to the development, Mr Atta Akyea said his office has not sanctioned any such evictions, adding that the perpetrators will be punished.
He told Accra-based Joy FM in an interview on Friday, 8 December 2017 that: “I don’t see how anybody will take it upon themselves to evict a government worker. Even if a government worker is at fault, there are civilised ways of evicting people. When you go to the Rent Act, we know what to do.
“But what is sad is that some people are hiding behind the office of the president to go along with this kind of waywardness and I’m going to deal with it. Trust me that I don’t care whoever is responsible for this, I want to find out who wants to assume the office of the Minister of Works and Housing and evict people…
“The Ministry of Works and Housing has a very civilised way of getting people out of government bungalows…if the gentleman [a victim who was evicted] said he’s working with the Accountant General’s office, you just get the Chief Director or call a colleague over there and these matters are resolved, but to adopt tactics which are just lawlessness, I don’t think as a minister, I’ll endorse this. I’m going to go to the bottom of this matter…”
The eviction occurred on Saturday, December 2, 2017 and was repeated on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.
