The CEO of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited, Dr Agnes Adu, says the company has not been served with any legal document that barred them from demolishing the Fantasy Dome. 

This was in response to claims by the CEO of Fantasy Entertainment, Leslie Quaynor, that the court had asked the Trade Fair company to desist from dismantling the dome.

Speaking to Joy FM’s Kwame Dadzie in an exclusive interview, Dr Adu, said “Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited has not been served with any court process. I am not sure what you have sighted but there are company addresses that are listed at the registry. I, the CEO have an address, the company has an address and none of us have been served with any notices or any court processes at all.”

Addressing the demolition, Dr Adu said that her outfit needed to make way for the site's redevelopment.

She stated redevelopment of the Trade Fair Centre has been ongoing for some time and as such, all previous tenants including owners of Fantasy Dome had been given notice to move.

“...the Fantasy Dome was the lone person holding out and refusing to move. And after 15 months of consistently giving notices to the owners of the Fantasy Dome, the owners and the developers we had no choice but to dismantle so that we can continue with the work,” she noted. 

Dr Adu said that per the agreement they signed with Fantasy Entertainment, they gave the CEO ample time to take off his structures.

This comes after Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited on Saturday, March 16, demolished the 20,000-seater capacity venue Fantasy Dome owner by the CEO of Fantasy Entertainment Leslie Quaynor.

Detailing the events that led to the demolishing, Mr Quaynor, in an interview with JoyNews, narrated that his lease had ended and the process to relocate the dome to another venue was underway. As such, he requested an extension to which the Trade Fair disagreed.

To prevent the destruction of his property, Mr Quaynor said he sought a writ and an injunction at an Accra High Court to ensure the Trade Fair management put a halt to any demolition exercise, giving him ample time to relocate and was served on the company at the premises.

Read More: Owner in shock after Fantasy Dome is demolished despite injunction; ‘this is a big blow’

Mr Quaynor noted that this is a big blow not just to him as a businessman but to the entertainment industry which needs event centres like these to thrive.

However, according to Dr Adu, the tenancy agreement was signed in January 2018 for a five-year time which expired on December 31, 2024. 

She told Kwame Dadzie that the tenancy had its rules one of which was that when redevelopment begins. Fantasy Entertainment would be given a six-month notice to vacate the site.

“The other clauses also stipulate that no permanent structures should be constructed so it would be easy to take them off when the need arises,” Dr Adu added.

She stated that the first notice was given in June 2022 since the Trade Fair had issued notices including July 22, 2022, January, February, April and December, all of 2023.

“It will be far-fetched to say that today or Saturday is the first time Fantasy Entertainment is becoming aware that his tenancy has expired,” she said.

“We have been very accommodating. In August 2023 in all these efforts to try to get him to move, he even petitioned the Minister of Trade who gave him four months so we should allow him to firm out his tenancy agreement…He even assured the Minister he would be leaving at the end of the tenancy agreement and that was December 2023. Three months on, he hasn’t left,” Dr Adu stated.

The Ghana Trade Fair Company’s CEO stated that the fantasy dome structure had stalled the redevelopment work on the site.