MCE Renders Tens Of Households Homeless

In the far west of the Ga South Municipality are two new communities � Lamptey and Adam Nana � which share a boundary with the Awutu Senya East Municipality. In the middle of these communities lies 78.98 acres of land, where tens of households have been displaced as a result of a demolition exercise carried out by the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly, leaving owners of these structures wailing and gnashing their teeth over their destroyed properties. Among the destroyed properties are two and three bedrooms semi-detached houses and storey buildings, which were either at various stages of completion, or had been completed and were being occupied by their owners or caretakers. The property owners, with their children, have been sleeping in the open, with a few others perching with friends and relatives living nearby. Their exposure to the vagaries of the weather has been a concern to them, with many complaining to the custodians of the land � Ngleshie Amanfro Traditional Council � to find a solution to their predicament. One of the victims, who pleaded anonymity in an interview with The Chronicle, narrated his ordeal at the hands of the Awutu Senya Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Dr. Nuhu, who, he claims, organised his men and some police personnel to demolish his building and others to pave way for the construction of a proposed bus terminal to serve Odukpon Kpehe (Kasoa) and its environs. �We were fast asleep in the night of December 14, 2014, when we heard a sudden knock at our door. I opened the door and saw some gentlemen, who identified themselves as members of the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly taskforce. I asked for their mission, and they told me to remove all my belongings in my house for they have been ordered by the MCE to come and demolish all the buildings in the area. �I thought they were joking, but upon stretching my neck further to find out whether same was happening to my neighbours, I saw a bulldozer and some other machinery, accompanied by some police personnel, ready to execute their given task. Before I could say Jack, the men entered my room and brought all my belongings, including that my wife and children outside, and started pulling the building down. I wasn�t the only casualty. About thirty of my neighbours suffered a similar ordeal,� he noted. Another victim, a retired military officer, said: �I have lost everything. All the savings I made while serving in the military have gone into this building. Now I have no one to turn to. Where is my family going sleep?� A mother of three, who could not bear her frustrations, told The Chronicle that they did not receive any court order or notice from the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly for the said demolition exercise, and wondered whether the MCE was above the law. �How can the MCE perpetrate such injustice on us? In any case, we are under Ga South Municipal Assembly where we pay our taxes. So, how can the Awutu Senya East MCE cross boundary and come and destroy our building properties? He must be brought to book,� she lamented. The Divisional Queenmother of Ngleshie Amanfro, Nana Tambia IV, speaking on the issue at press conference organised in the community last Thursday, said the ordeal of her people lay in the fact that the MCE claimed to have bought the said land for the construction of a bus terminal for the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly. According to the Queenmother, the demolition was carried out without a court order, but the express permission of the Kasoa District Police Commander, Superintendent Tibin Pynobin. �Before I, Nana Tambia IV, realised, almost about twenty six buildings were demolished, and the occupants thrown out of their rooms by the taskforce,� she noted. According to her, several attempts to get the demolition exercise halted proved futile, and the police and the MCE ignored her constant calls, and instead pulled down the structures. Giving the facts of the matter, Nana Tambia IV said the 78.98 acreage of land was a subject of litigation, where an injunction had been placed on it by the Cocoa Affairs Court 1, since November 11, 2005. The case, she noted, is between a native of Amanfro, Nii Acquah Ashley, known in private life as Alex Donkor, and one Alhaji Mohammed Sani Farl of Nima in Accra, who is also claiming ownership of the same land. Despite the court action, she said Alhaji Mohammaed Sani Farl has gone ahead and sold the land to the Awutu Senya East Assembly, which also bought it without doing due diligence. She said the Dr. Adams Nuhu, not knowing the land in question belongs to the Ngleshie Amanfro Stool Land which pays royalties and title deeds to the Ga South Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region, was hell bent on developing it, hence, the demolition of the buildings and properties without any court order. According to her, the abuse of power by the MCE need not go unpunished, hence, her call on President John Dramani Mahama to immediately sack him from office, since he was making the government unpopular in the area. She also called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to investigate why the Kasoa police would unilaterally supervise such an exercise without his concern and a court order. Furthermore, she called on the Chief Justice to ensure that the case brought before the court was fast-tracked to prevent such an occurrence. That notwithstanding, Nana Tambia IV called for compensation for the victims of the demolition, as well as get the government agency out of the litigation and handover the lands to the Ngleshi Amanfro Stool. The land in question is currently being developed by a Brazilian construction firm, Queiroz Galvao, on behalf of the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly. Efforts to get the MCE respond to the issue proved futile, as several calls to his cell phone went unanswered.