AMA Pulls Down More Structures


Hundreds of both squatters and traders in the makeshift settlements and food joints stretching from the Avenor end of the railway lines to the crossing near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle have been displaced.

They were last Saturday descended upon by four excavators with armed cops and soldiers providing security cover, in another wave of demolition to hit Accra.

Hundreds of onlookers could not resist the urge to tarry a while to behold the ongoing demolition with trauma, wondering what to do next, especially as they were denied the opportunity to salvage remnants of their wares.

By the time the exercise was over, the spectacle left behind was that of mangled and rusty roofing sheets and assortment of household items, some of them cooking utensils.

At the Feoeyoo livestock market around the Articulator Station sellers of animals were taken aback by the swiftness of an action they said came without prior notice.

The exercise continued yesterday, winding towards the other parts of the railway line towards the Accra terminus of the Railway Company.

Enraged and disappointed hawkers and others trooped to the Multimedia offices to lodge their complaint as though the media outlet could reverse their predicament.

Even as they gave up any hope of salvaging the remnants of their wares, the security personnel chased them in a bid to arrest them – an action which appeared bizarre though.

Two mosques used by the livestock dealers after the Avenor Railway crossing were left intact by the marauding excavators, prompting people to ask who would use the religious facilities if the patrons had all been driven away.

An AMA officials denied that the victims of the demolition exercise were not given prior notice, adding also that they knew that their occupation of the place was illegal.

The livestock market at the place has been in existence for over four decades, serving the needs of, especially Muslims during the Eid Ul Adha festivities. Livestock from the north, Burkina Faso and elsewhere are dropped there for sale to customers.

The recent floods experienced in Accra, according to hydrological experts, were the results of choked waterways and the construction of structures on such water paths.

Following the recent killer floods, the worst in the history of such calamities in Accra, the city authorities have commenced a demolition exercise, the most prominent being the one which displaced thousands of squatters of the city’s notorious slum, Sodom and Gomorrah.

By A.R. Gomda


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