July 5, 2019
Benjamin Xornam Glover, TEMA
The Tema West Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the National Security Council Secretariat on Wednesday, July 3, 2019 carried out the second phase of the eviction of illegal squatters along the Accra-Tema Motorway.
Yesterday’s exercise, the second after the a similar exercise carried out by the Ayawaso West Municipal a week ago, covers the stretch near Dominion Center of the Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), Ghana, a place popularly known as kiosk estates
Four bull dozers were deployed to the area on Wednesday morning clear the area of the unauthorized structures on the piece of land that serves as a buffer for the carriageway.
Not even pleas of leniency by the frustrated occupants of the wooden structures residents will stop the team, which also included heavily armed police personnel from carrying out the exercise.
Some of the occupants in their desperation to save their structures quickly mobilised young men to their kiosks across the motorway, a situation which created a traffic jam on the express road.
Mr Vincent Quarshie, Head of Works Department of the Tema West Municipal Assembly who supervised the demolition exercise, in an interview said the removal of temporary structures along the motorway follows a directive from National Security.
CONCERN
According to him, the presence of unauthorised settlements and slums along the Accra-Tema Motorway has become a source of concern to motorists who ply the 19-kilometre highway.
Mr Quarshie said apart from the wanton disregard for road traffic regulations, activities of the squatters creates piles of garbage along that stretch of road.
He added that apart from the nuisance they create, the kiosks and metal containers were sighted under electric pylons which posses a threat to life and property of the owners of the shacks.
Mr Quarshie said it was estimated that over 2,000 shacks have been placed illegally on a stretch of land earmarked for the expansion of the motorway.
He said the Assembly would not sit down and look on unconcerned while unauthorized persons occupy the land illegally. He stressed emphasised that the development control team of the Assembly will continue its monitoring exercise to ensure that illegal occupation are immediately dealt with.
NECESSARY EVIL
The Presiding Member of the Tema West Municipal Assembly, Mr Kwesi Poku Bosompem, in an interview with the Daily Graphic said the eviction of the squatters, though a painful one has become necessary due to the fact that the motorway enclave have become a death and a den for of undesirable elements.
He said the Assembly spent an average of GH c 3,500 weekly to evacuate filth generated by the squatters along that stretch of road, a situation, he said the Assembly cannot sustain.
Mr Bosompem said as far as 2018, the Ministry for Roads and Highways ordered squatters along the Tema Motorway to relocate to pave way for the expansion of the carriage. Following that, the assembly has continuously engaged the squatters and marked the structures for evacuation but none of such warnings has been heeded to.
The PM assured the squatters that the Assembly would meet the squatters and come out with some resettlement plan.
REACTION
Ms. Faustina Amuzu who hailed from the Volta Region of Ghana had stayed in the area for three years and had her livelihood there.
She said every occupant pay between GH c 150 and GH c 300 to a man, whose name she gave as Baba, aka Old Soldier before placing of a kiosk on the land after which they are charge monthly fee of GH c 40 per structure.
According to her, due to the employment situation in the country coupled with the lack of accommodation they are compelled to settle in the slum.
Another resident, Ali Issifu said about a week ago, officials of the Assembly were in the community to inform the occupants that they have been given three months to evacuate the place only to be taken by surprise with Wednesday unannounced eviction
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