Editorial: The Poor Judgement At Flower Pot Flyover Must Be Probed

The decision by the Greater Accra Regional Minister to halt construction beneath the East Legon Flowerpot Flyover has blown the lid off what is rapidly emerging as one of the most disturbing urban planning scandals in recent memory.

What has been exposed is not merely an unauthorised project, but a dangerous culture of institutional recklessness that threatens Ghana’s urban safety, spatial integrity and respect for science-based planning.

Images and videos shared by the Minister and sighted by The Chronicle show active foundation works ongoing beneath the interchange, an area, which by every known principle of engineering, security and urban planning, should never be opened up for commercial development. This immediately raises troubling questions: into whose hands has the state surrendered Ghana’s critical infrastructure spaces? And who authorised this madness?

Adding a deeply human but equally troubling dimension to the scandal is a viral video circulated on Citi FM’s X platform. In the footage, a visibly distressed woman, identified as Georgina Opoku, popularly known as Asoor, pleads with President John Dramani Mahama and the First Lady to intervene after her permit to develop the space into a washing bay was revoked.

She claims to have paid thousands of cedis to the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company before the permit was abruptly cancelled, allegedly because the space “belongs to a businessman” whose name she declined to disclose.

If this claim is true, then Ghana is not merely dealing with poor planning, but with elite capture of public infrastructure.

Even more alarming are the admissions by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Dr. Michael Mensah. Speaking on Citi FM’s Breakfast Show, the MCE confirmed that an application had been submitted to develop the space into a car park and that the Assembly engaged the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), since the area falls under its jurisdiction.

According to Dr. Mensah, DUR allegedly presented a proposal outlining plans to commercialise such spaces into car parks, washing bays, police posts and fire service points. Based on this presentation, the Assembly issued a permit, despite admitting that final approval from DUR had not yet been granted.

This explanation is not only contradictory; it is scandalous. How does an Assembly issue a permit for a project it knows lacks final statutory approval? What kind of leadership allows speculative commercialisation of the basement of an interchange, an area meant for security, emergency response, structural expansion and disaster management?

Even more shocking was the MCE’s attempt to justify the permit on grounds of congestion, arguing that people park on road shoulders during events. This reasoning is dangerously simplistic and betrays a complete absence of engineering judgment. You do not solve traffic congestion by converting critical transport infrastructure into a commercial parking lot. That logic is not just flawed—it is suicidal.

Under the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are empowered to develop their jurisdictions. However, this mandate is not a licence for recklessness. Act 936 establishes MMDAs as the highest political and administrative authorities at the local level and requires them to initiate, coordinate and execute development programmes within the bounds of law, safety, and sound planning—not in defiance of them.

While The Chronicle sympathises with the woman who may have lost her investment, we unequivocally support the revocation of the permit. That space was never meant for commercial activity, period!

This scandal goes far beyond one MCE. It exposes a systemic failure in Ghana’s urban governance. What traffic impact assessment was conducted? What spatial planning data informed this decision? What engineering logic supports converting an interchange basement into a car park or washing bay?

The answers are conspicuously absent. Ghana’s cities are degenerating into concrete chaos because long-term planning have been sacrificed on the altar of short-term profiteering. Flooding, congestion, structural risk and urban decay are the inevitable outcomes. Reckless MMDA decisions are steadily turning our cities into slums, forcing the state to contemplate building new cities at enormous cost to the taxpayer.

In a related development, at Dzowulu, a prime residential area, the Assembly has permitted a businessman to erect a fleet of shops directly beneath high-tension power transmission lines, universally recognised as no-build safety buffers. This is a calculated exposure of human lives to lethal danger.

Which serious country does this? Which responsible state, knowingly places citizens under high-voltage transmission lines and calls it commerce? These corridors exist for one reason: to protect human life from electrocution, electromagnetic exposure, fire hazards and catastrophic system failure.

We commend the Greater Accra Regional Minister for halting the works at the Flower Pot Interchange, but stopping construction is not enough. This matter must not be quietly buried. Sanctions must follow. Accountability must be enforced.

If the government’s much-touted “reset agenda” is to mean anything, it must begin with reclaiming Ghana’s urban spaces from institutional negligence and elite exploitation. The Flowerpot Interchange scandal, we dare say, must be thoroughly investigated.

 

 

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