The ultimatum issued by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to squatters at Sodom and Gomorrah to provide evidence of legal occupation or vacate the area expired yesterday with none of the residents complying with any of the directives.
According to the Head of Metro Works for the AMA, Mr Carl Henry Clerk, none of the squatters had been able to produce a permit for the concrete structures they had constructed in the slum nor proved ownership of the land they were occupying. He told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday that consequent to that, the AMA would advise itself on the next step of demolishing to illegal structures at the place formerly called Old Fadama.
This is the second time this year that the assembly has served notices to the squatters to remind them of their illegal occupation of the area and the need for them to voluntarily vacate the place before the intended demolishing exercise. �Take notice that you are hereby required on or before the urgent day of September 30, 2009 by a statement in writing under your hand or the hand of some person duly authorized in that behalf by you and served upon the metropolitan behalf by you and served upon the metropolitan chief executive to show cause why you have constructed a concrete block building without authorization from the city authority,� the notice said.
According to the notice, signed by the Metropolitan Engineer of the AMA on September 22, 2009, �the structures have been constructed in contravention of the Local Government Act 462 of 1993, Section 64 Subsections two and three and should, therefore, be demolished� Some workers of the assembly, including officials at the Ashiedu Keteke Sub-metro, had served occupants of the area living in concrete structures with notices, daring their owners to produce their permits or peacefully vacate the area before the deadline.
An exercise to mark the illegal structures in the area on Monday, September 28, 2009, however, failed as some opinion leaders, led by Mr Razak Salifu, pleaded with the officials to engage in further dialogue before any demolition exercise was carried out. Workers of the AMA had stormed the area at 10:20 a.m., with police escort, armed with red paint and brushes to mark all the structures, Mr Razak said, adding that after several pleadings with the officials, they went back to their office �without even entering the slum.�
A resident of the area, Mr Abdulai Wumbe, who has stayed in the slum for 18 years, having fled the Nanumba and Kokomba War in the 1990s, pleaded with the government to restore peace in the north so that they could go back.�When there is peace, I will go back, I have a wife, seven children and two grandchildren and I cannot take them back to a region that is not peaceful,� he said.
A People�s National Conventions (PNC) parliamentary candidate in the last general election, Baba Imoro, also resident at Sodom and Gomorra, indicated that economic circumstances had brought most of them into the capital and that �we all have homes back in the north. If anybody says he or she has nowhere to go, it is a lie�. These statements notwithstanding, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, is optimistic that the exercise will pull through soon, noting that the notices and markings are initial steps being taken by the assembly to sensitise the squatters to the exercise.
�We know they do not have permits but it is a procedure which we must follow,� he said. Squatters of the slum, however, insist that the government must find them an alternative place before any demolition is carried out.
Mr Vanderpuije stated that if the people failed to move voluntarily, the assembly would be compelled to forcibly evict them. �The AMA says the place must go and the government has not said otherwise,� he answered when this reporter tried to find out whether the assembly had the government�s support for the exercise. He explained that officials of the assembly served �vacate� notices on the people some two months ago. The notices were aimed at preparing them for the exercise, he said.
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