Residents of Tema surburb Adjei Kojo, whose houses were demolished by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) last month were over the weekend rendered second time homeless, as TDC bulldozers returned to clear debris in the area.
Last month, the TDC which accuses the homeowners of encroachment demolished about 150 houses in the area, rendering about 800 residents homeless.
The TDC says it wants to use the land to build flats for low and middle income workers. But it stopped further development on the land, after a huge public outcry.
On Saturday, the bulldozers returned to clear the debris. Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo who visited the area reports that heavy machinery, escorted by armed military and police personnel broke up the collapsed structures into pieces, and carted them from the demolished site.
A large portion of the demolished area is now clear, as if nothing had ever been built on the land. In the process, make shift wooden structures which over the last three weeks have been housing about one hundred victims within the debris, were destroyed.
They have nowhere to sleep now. “After the demolition, we built certain make shift structures for ourselves made of wood, but now all that is gone. Now we are stranded”, Spokesperson of the Sraha East Residents Forum, Edward Mawuko Banini told Joy News.
Members of a special committee set up by parliament to investigative the demolishing are expected to visit the area Monday, February 17.
The residents think the TDC is trying to erase evidence of the number of houses, and the construction materials used for the houses.
Edward Banini says: “the (demolition) lays credence to the information we are hearing that the TDC does not want the committee to find out the extent about their lies; because they initially claimed (what they destroyed) were wooden structures scattered around here with squatters. So they are trying to do a cover up”.
Organizer of the Sraha East Landlords Association, Abraham Tawiah expressed concern their woes have been further deepened by the TDC’s activity.
“As I am speaking to you now, we have nowhere to go, there is no money to hire a room, we have no place to sleep”, he said.
The special committee due to visit the area is made up of members of the Select Committees on Works and Housing, Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Lands and Natural Resources.
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