Prez. Mahama fights to purchase official Cantonments residence

• Posted on January 6, 2017January 6, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

President John Mahama is not resting on his oars over his quest to be allowed to purchase the official residence he is currently occupying at Cantonments, Accra.

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE suggests that he has formally written to parliament to facilitate an outright sale of the property which he occupied when he was vice president.

There has been public uproar since his obsession with the house was made public.  Most callers into radio stations questioned the propriety in the president’s quest to be allowed to purchase the house he occupies.

Some even asked whether if other occupants of the COCOBOD property had been offered the option of purchase, he President Mahama would have lived in the house at all, let alone purchase it as he is seeking to do.

Some MPs have wondered how such a request can sail through, given the fact that it was not part of the package approved for him when deliberations on his parting package were on the table.

The house under review was the place the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama lived when he served as vice president until the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost power and he relocated to his personal residence close to the Russian Embassy.

As pointed out in a preceding paragraph, the residence used to be a guest house of COCOBOD but for some years its status has altered, with the late President Atta Mills occupying it before Aliu Mahama took over.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to move in after the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday.

It remains to be seen whether in the twilight of the life of the current parliament in which the NDC has a majority, President Mahama can pull some strings to have his dream come true.

Top personalities of the NPP have frowned upon the request, describing it as selfish and unnecessary, given the fact that the parting head of state has enough property in plush segments of Accra that he could save himself the embarrassment of acquiring what could haunt him someday, should he insist on having his way.

By A.R. Gomda