Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong (L) and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (R)

A former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, has responded to claims by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, over a directive reversing the sale of lands belonging to the ministry by the previous government.

Ampratwum-Sarpong described the report as a complete falsehood, dismissing the directive attributed to President John Dramani Mahama.

Providing clarification and setting the record straight, he stated that no land was sold under the former Akufo-Addo-led government, contrary to the claims made by Ablakwa.

“That report coming from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is 120% false. There have never been any land sales at the ministry under the previous administration of Akufo-Addo,” he said on Metro TV.

Doubling as the Member of Parliament of Mampong, the lawmaker explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never owned the lands in question, as they are solely owned by the government.

Additionally, he clarified that the Lands Commission is responsible for overseeing the lands in that area, emphasising that any allocations made were done by the commission, not the ministry.

He went ahead to accuse Ablakwa of making a false reportage to mislead the public.

“The reason is that the ministry never owned the lands in question and so, I don’t know where he [Okudzeto] is coming from. Maybe he slept on the wrong side of the bed.

“I don’t know if he was conjuring things up but those lands he referred to are not lands owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but owned by the government of Ghana, controlled and managed by the Lands Commission. Any allocation that had been done in that area was an allocation done by the Lands Commission,” he added.

His comments come in response to President John Dramani Mahama’s directive reversing the sale of lands belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which were initiated by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the president has ordered that all lands of his ministry either sold or allocated by the previous government be reversed.

Ablakwa, who is also the Member of Parliament of North Tongu, said that the order implies that prime lands sold by the Akufo-Addo government at Airport Residential Area are affected.

“President Mahama has directed that all allocations and sales of land belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the previous government be immediately reversed.

“Yesterday’s presidential directive will ensure that the Ministry’s adjoining land at Airport Residential, which some seven organisations and individuals claim to be the new owners of, will now be cancelled and preserved for the people of Ghana,” the minister wrote in a post shared on X on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

He went on to thank the president for his decision and vowed that no land of the ministry would be sold under his watch.

“I am enormously grateful to President Mahama for his unwavering patriotic and decisive presidential backing. Under my watch as foreign minister, no land or property of the ministry, located either at home or abroad, will be sold. No more state capture!” his post concluded.

MAG/AE

Meanwhile, watch this Ghana Month special edition of People and Places as we hear the story of how the head of Kwame Nkrumah's bronze statue was returned after 43 years, below: