“If you issue a permit to someone to put up a building knowing very well it is illegal, you will also face the law. Some of them [officers] have been transferred to the north [northern Ghana] to serve as a kind of punishment for them so that when they realise that what they did was wrong, they will be brought back to Accra and other places.”
The paragraphed quote above by Hon. Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo resulted in a massive condemnation on both traditional and social media during a demolition exercise at the Ramsar site at Sakumono on May 4, 2025.
She responded swiftly in an official statement, insisting her remark was a slip of communication, suggesting it does not reflect her misconstrued views of the northern part of Ghana.
Mantse Prof. Odaifio Welentsi III, president of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, on Monday, May 11, 2026, in a press conference, pleaded for forgiveness on behalf of Hon. Linda Ocloo.
Though he noted her comments are regrettable, they have an ounce of truth in them. He proceeded to extend apologies to the people of the North, President John Mahama, and the entire country.
