Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo called Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday to apologize for the unceremonious demolition of the country’s embassy in Accra by a local businessman claiming to own the land.

Pulse Nigeria reported that a Ghanaian businessman claimed the Nigerian High Commission was situated on his land and provided evidence of his claim to the local authorities. The embassy petitioned the government to block the demolition, but received no response.

As per international law, embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the states they represent, meaning the Nigerian embassy would be considered Nigerian land. Ghana has a legal responsibility to protect the embassy and can only do away with it through the legal process of declaring Nigeria’s diplomats personae non grata, then formally withdrawing the diplomatic presence.

“The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity,” Article 22 of the Vienna Convention, which governs the treatment of embassies, reads. “The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.”

The facility’s head of security, Emmanuel Kabutey, said when police officers arrived at the scene, they did nothing to stop the demolition, which targeted a number of buildings under construction for embassy employees. Nigeria’s Charge D’affaires Iva Denoo was told she would need to leave the building or be bulldozed inside.

“When the police came, with the bulldozer outside, they had a friendly chat with the leader of the bulldozing team, exchanged phone numbers with him, and allowed him to go,” he told local media.

The demolition predictably drew a furious response from Nigeria, one of the most powerful countries in Africa due to its large military and population of nearly 200 million people, which condemned it as an unprovoked “act of aggression.”

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/06/24/ghana-apologizes-nigeria-after-bulldozing-countrys-embassy/