Eyesore At Airport City

A practice which has the potential to impact negatively on Ghana’s image as an attractive investment and tourism destination is rearing its ugly head around the Silver Star Towers, which is situated on the borders of the proposed Airport City near the Kotoka International Airport.

Scores of young people have taken to having their bath in the open every morning in front of the Silver Star Towers, which is one of the most beautiful attractions in the city.

The Finder’s investigations revealed that for six years running, squatters from an obscure area behind the Opeibea building subject early morning commuters and international travellers to an embarrassing spectacle by exposing their nakedness to motoring traffic and passers-by.

The development is said to have attracted serious concern from various stakeholders, including residents, commuters, businesses and tourism officials.

The practice starts from the break of dawn and continues to as late as 6.20am daily. Complaints have especially come from parents who drive their children from the motorway intersection to Accra and those driving in the opposite direction.

When this reporter arrived at the scene in front of the Silver Star Towers last week, dozens of young men aged between 20 and 35 were seen removing their clothes and bathing in the drainage in front of the tower.

A young girl, Jennifer Esi Spio, aged 13, said some of the younger men who had their bath there harassed her each morning as she passed by to board a vehicle to her school at Ashaley Botwe

“Yesterday, they were telling me to come and bath with them, but I did not mind them. Every time when I pass here, they will be singing “small girl you don’t know the thing and I am teaching you the thing.”

She begged that immediate steps be taken to stop the practice.

The Editor-in-Chief of Youth for Youth Magazine and lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Mr Tim Quashigah, who plies the road every morning, was outraged at the spectacle, which he said has been allowed to go unchecked for years and was causing embarrassment to the motoring public.

“It is disappointing that this can be happening in Ghana whilst authorities look on unconcerned. I drive with my children every morning and you can imagine the discomfort when we stop at the traffic lights. We look so backward with this practice going on in the heart of the city and so close to the only international airport we have. My goodness!” he exclaimed.

Mr Quashigah said city authorities and the police must take immediate action to stop the practice.

Priscilla, who works in the Silver Star Building, arrived at 6.12am at the entrance of the building when four men undressed right in front of her, indifferently exposing their manhood as they stepped into their ‘bathroom.’

Priscilla told The Finder she had to deal with the situation every morning since it seemed the young men were not going to stop bathing there any time soon. She vehemently condemned the act.

“Oh it’s not good at all, but what can we do? Our security sacks them, but then they always come back. So anytime I reach here I pretend to be texting on my phone,” she said.

Traffic had come to a halt at the time and some motorists flayed their hands angrily in the direction of the men, obviously in protests against the free daylight nudist exhibition going on.

Two of the men who were bathing said they were given permission by the management of Silver Star Towers to fetch water and confessed that they were not allowed to bath there.

They explained that they bathed in the open because it was difficult crossing the main road with water, hence their decision to choose the more convenient approach.

According to the Head of Security at the Silver Star Towers, WO1 Peter Ofori, clean water is pumped out from the Silver Towers each morning into the drainage, which attracts the men to take their bath there each morning. He said the people are allowed only to fetch the water and take it home, but the young men have taken to bathing there in the open

“The building stands on water so when the reservoir which stores water for the use of offices here gets full, the spill-over comes out into the drainage, which we allow those men to fetch and take home, but not to bath here. Unfortunately, they have turned the area into their bathhouse and anytime we sack them they come back,” he said.

He added, “Some of them come from the Police Barracks, but they don’t bath here. The ones that bath here are from Legion Village, Tema Station and Nima. There are ruining the image of the city and the offices here,” WO1 Ofori added.