Security concerns over of Pres Palace: TV3, others to relocate

Buildings within a certain radius of the new Presidential Palace at the Flagstaff House will be taken over by the national security outfit before the palace is inhabited, sources within the national security apparatus have hinted.

The sources told the Daily Graphic that the buildings include the French Embassy, which shares a wall with the Flagstaff House.

The full range of buildings to be affected are still being determined but those likely to fall within the range include the Afrikiko Restaurant, TV3 and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Club House.

A source close to the security agencies said the security implications of structures such as Afrikiko, TV3 and the GBC Club House were not as complicated as those of the French Embassy.

It said Afrikiko, which was Ghanaian owned, could be relocated, while TV3, a company in which the government owns shares, as well as other smaller structures around the area, could easily be relocated.

With the French Embassy, however, the source said there was the need for diplomatic discussions to arrive at an amicable settlement.

It explained that the Embassy was neither owned by Ghana nor was it a Ghanaian entity and, therefore, it could not just be relocated.

It said diplomatic means were necessary in this instance because France was one of Ghana's major development partners. Consequently, any move at relocating its Embassy shouid be done with all the decorum it deserved so that the cordial relations that existed between the two
countries would not be marred.

The source said there had been a series of closed-door meetings between the two countries at the highest level and that as soon as a solution was arrived at, the public would be informed.

A Research Fellow at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Ennin, expressed concern over the siting of the Presidential Palace so close to a foreign embassy.

He said nowhere in the world was a foreign embassy sited so close to the seat of government and added that the country's security could be gravely compromised.

The sources agreed that an embassy so close to the seat of government could breach national security and stressed that any building, be it residential or an office, could not be allowed to be situated close to the seat of government.

They said the French Embassy could be given another office to use or the French government could construct a new office at another site in the capital if it deemed fit.

"I agree that there is nowhere in this world where a foreign embassy is close to a presidential palace," one of the sources said.

But in reaction to the latest development, Dr Ennin told the Daily Graphic that a takeover of all buildings in the area now or in the near future might be a little too late.

"The first thing that should have been done was to clear the area before construction and not construction before clearing the area," he said.

The Minister of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Nana Obiri Boahen, had earlier told the Daily Graphic that in some countries all embassies were situated within a certain area and added that it was not too late for the country to explore that possibility.

Source: Daily Graphic