Tema Motorway Kiosk Estate  pulled down

Kiosk Estates, one of the popular slums along the Accra-Tema Motorway area, has been brought down by the Tema-West Municipal Assembly.

The Municipal Assembly, pulled down over 200 makeshift structures, mostly kiosks, making up the slum area.

The slum was inhabited by persons who mostly sold along  the motorway and engaged in menial jobs.

A team of security officials made up of police and army officers, provided protection for engineering corps of the TWMA who stormed the slum to demolish the structures.

Miss Eunice Afutu, Public Relations Officer of the TWMA, told the Ghana News Agency that, the demolition was carried out to bring sanity on that stretch of the motorway, because it was an illegal settlement.

“The dwellers also allegedly rob motorists and passengers who ply the motorway especially at night while some also burgled residents of nearby communities,” she said.

Miss Afutu added that activities of the slum dwellers also posed serious health dangers to both slum dwellers and neighbouring communities.

She noted that enough notice was served the kiosk dwellers to vacate the place before the demolitio. She explained that several notices were served for them in 2018; an additional three month grace period was given them and a plea for extention from them, which also elapsed in March, 2019.

Meanwhile, victims of the demolition have expressed their disappointment at the development and accused the Assembly of not giving them enough time to relocate.

Some of them threatened to put their belongings on the motorway as they had nowhere to go and therefore called on the government to come to their aid.

Recently, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) David Agyemang Adjem, Baatsonaa Divisional Police Commander, expressed worry over the springing up of wooden structures all over the Municipality, especially behind people’s houses, which served as haven for criminals who committed crimes against residents.

He called on the Assembly to strictly enforce its By-laws on the springing up of such structures.

Source: GNA