Establish programmes to assist slum dwellers-Ofosuhene

Mr. Kwabena Okai Ofosuhene, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Abibiman Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Thursday called on the Tema and Accra Metropolitan Assemblies, as well as other local government agencies, to put in place adaptation programmes and projects that would assist Ghanaians who live in slum areas. Mr Ofosuhene said this at a press conference following visits to slums within the Tema Metropolis by members of the Foundation during the World Human Rights Day celebrations. He said the visit showed that there was no justification for the demolishing of illegal structures at Community Three, Site B (Mount Zion Down). He said proper and appropriate programmes needed to be put in place to ensure that the exercise served its intended purpose of decongesting the cities. Mr. Ofosuhene said places such as Zinginshore and Abonkor within the Tema Manhean Community, needed critical and immediate attention by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), to prevent any disaster and public health crisis in the near future. He appealed to people currently living in these slums, to show maximum level of responsibility and leave those places for their own good. Some residents from the Community Three slum site who were present at the Press Conference, disclosed to newsmen that they paid to the TMA monies ranging from GH�10 to GH�23 on yearly basis depending on the structure. They pleaded with the Assembly to postpone the demolishing exercise to about a year or two, so that people's fundamental human rights would not be affected much.