Museums Board To Decide On New Use For James Fort

By Stephen K. Effah
Saturday, 10 May 2008

THE Ghana Museums and Monuments Board says it is considering what to use the James Fort Prison for after a successful evacuation of all the 979 inmates to other prisons nationwide.

Although it did not state exactly what it intends to use the facility for, a source at the board told the Times on Wednesday that it would only announce that when the Ghana Prisons Service offically hands over the facility to it.

The fort was built in 1673 for slave trading and was converted into a prison after the infamous trade. But the Ghana Bar Association last year asked the government to immediately relocate the inmates due to the dilapidated state of the fort.


The Times gathered that the handing over was supposed to have been done in March but was postponed indefinately at the last minute following the unavailability of President J.A. Kufuor who was to do it.

When contacted, a source at the Prisons Public Relations Office, told the Times that the service was waiting for the presidency to fix a date for the handing over ceremony.

"Once the date is fixed, we will hand over the facility to the Museums and Monuments Board," the source told the Times.