Drama, controversy and wailing are what characterized a massive demolition exercise carried out by the Ledzokuku-Krowor assembly during the weekend at Nautical, near the Regional Maritime University, to rid the site of unauthorized structures on government lands.
Affected residents were gripped by shock, trauma and desperation as they watched bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment crushing property they had invested their heard-earned savings in. However, while residents assert that they were not served any notice to warn them of the impending exercise which took off on Saturday at about 7:00 a.m. the municipal chief executive for the area, Daniel Mensah, insists they were informed as far back as December 14, last year.
A distraught resident, Lordina Bassi, one of several occupants who averred they just completed their structures, said no signs were written on the walls of her house to signal it was cited on an authorized parcel of land. According to her, she was surprised the laws of the country were not even adhered to, to even inform them so that they could find places to resettle. She claimed they were harassed and intimidated by security officials who forcibly evicted them from their rooms for the exercise to be carried out, leaving them stranded and not knowing where to take their belonging to.
Checks by the paper revealed that tract of land belonged to the Regional Maritime University but had been encroached upon. However, it was learnt that the ownership of that territory was being litigated over by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), though it was entrusted into the care of TDC by the government.
The municipal chief executive for Ledzokuku-Krowor, Daniel Mensah, in an interview with The Heritage, pointed out that the exercise was undertaken to breathe a level of sanity into the land development in his area, his assembly having been worried by the rate at which unauthorized structures were sprouting in the township. “those structures which were demolished were on the lands of the Maritime University, and the assembly is dealing with the encroachment before it gets out of hand”, he said, firmly clarifying that there would be no compensation for the affected peoples as the assembly had notified them some three months earlier to quit.
Worse for them, Mr. Mensah revealed that his assembly has intentions of prosecuting the owners of the structures to get them to bear the cost of the demolishing exercise. He added that a series of such exercises would be embarked upon to clear buildings off government lands and waterways.
