Majority Leader justifies downing of Old Parliament House

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has justified the demolishing of the Old Parliament House, saying the integrity of the building was compromised after it was engulfed in flames four years ago.

“You remember it was gutted by fire some time back and sometimes when you want a rehabilitation of a structure that has been gutted by fire, the integrity of which structure might have suffered tremendously, you don’t go about reinforcing the existing structure, it’s better you pull it down. I guess that might have informed the decision to pull it down and re-erect a new structure to replace it,” the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said on Tuesday, 12 September.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s explanation follows widespread public condemnation of the decision by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to pull down part of the structure for rebuilding.

Cymain Ghana Limited were contracted to pull the building down.

Constructed in the early 1950s, the building, which housed the Citizens Vetting Committee (CVC), the Judgement Debt Commission, the CHRAJ and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), caught fire in December 2013 and had parts of it destroyed, making it unsafe for people to occupy.