On Tuesday, June 17, the organisers of the ‘Hands Off Our Hotels’ event plan to oppose the sale of a 60% ownership in six hotels owned by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust.
The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who organized the demonstration, has already filed a petition with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) against the sale to Agriculture Minister Bryan Acheampong.
Mr. Ablakwa contends that selling state properties to government officials is an abuse of power.
Addressing the media, Mr. Ablakwa emphasized that a crucial demand in their petition to President Akufo-Addo during Tuesday’s rally is that he immediately suspend the sale to Bryan Acheampong.
“We insist that President Akufo-Addo must immediately stop the sale of our SSNIT hotels. We want an immediate declaration from the president because all he has done since we started is tell Organised Labour to go meet the Employment Minister, and at that meeting, Organised Labour told us that they tried to persuade them to allow the sale, indicating that the president and his appointees do not want to stop the sale, and we will insist that they back out.
“We are also demanding that state assets should no longer be sold, particularly the profitable ones.”
Meanwhile, Naa Ayele Ardayfio Sekyere, the Public Relations Officer of the Trades Union Congress, expressed solidarity for the demonstration and restated the call for public officials to avoid the hotels.
“This is a national call, and it is fantastic that our MPs are spearheading it. Let’s have a look at how it is that we occasionally encounter troubles with SSNIT. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results; we’re simply not making progress with SSNIT.
“This is a national call for us, and we must all be interested because I don’t want to work for over 40 years and go on retirement as a pauper so this is a call for all of us. Not just Hands Off Our Hotels but all those lands that are being sold.”
