Dome Railway Station in the Abokobi District of the Greater Accra Region has been taken over by squatters, commercial sex workers, robbers, gamblers and wee smokers who engage in all manner of nefarious activities, Today can report.
The paper discovered that these societal deviants rob users of the railway of their personal belongings which include mobile phones, monies after subjecting them to physical assaults.
And in some extreme cases female users of the railway area are raped and defiled.
What is more, passers-by who use the railway at night to Taifa, St. John’s, Alogboshie and CFC townships are also not spared by these groups of miscreants.
A closer look at the area indicated that about 500 makeshift structures have been built along the railway. And it is in these structures that squatters live and engage in all manner of illicit activities to survive.
The squatters, Today further gathered, have connected electricity illegally to their wooden structures.
Many of the squatters also take their bath on the rail lines, a situation which is consequently weakening the rails.
“Last week, I was robbed of my mobile phone and money in the night by some young men who live along the Dome Railway when I walked on the rails to send my sick grandmother to a hospital at CFC,” a trader, Esi Afiyo, told the paper.
The paper also observed that wee smokers including minors, could be seen smoking and selling prohibited drugs in the open anytime of the day.
Aside from the makeshift structures, there were several drinking spots where commercial sex workers including teenage girls could be seen in the night engaging in sexual acts.
There also serious sanitation problems. In spite of the two public toilets sited in the area, many of squatters preferred to openly defecate along rail line.
That situation, Today gathered, was causing many cases of cholera, diarrhea, typhoid and malaria in Dome.
When contacted the Assembly Member for Dome West Electoral Area, Hon. Benjamin Ayikai Okai, told Today that his collaboration with the Unit Committee Members to deal with the squatters has become a herculean task as their lives are being threatened on a daily basis.
According to him, “the squatters consider themselves as paupers and have ignored all passionate appeals to evacuate the area,” he said.
“…And again they prefer to use a river in this area as an alternative source to dump garbage which causes flooding in the area anytime after heavy downpour,” he said.
Hon. Ayikai Okai revealed that the squatters have however threatened to damage a string of telephone cables across a river near the railway crossing at Dome which the squatters claim is the cause of flooding along the banks of the river.
“It is with deep regret that the Ghana Railways have permitted the squatters to besiege the area. Having notified them about the ongoing activities by the squatters, they seem to have turned deaf ears to the numerous complaints,” he noted.
Similarly, he chided the Fault Section of Vodafone Dome Exchange for doing nothing about the string of cables across the culvert at the rail crossing which contributes to flooding in the area.
He indicated that he has addressed the squatters issue to the Abokobi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area and prayed that they would urgently attend to the situation at the Dome Railway Station before it generates into a catastrophe.
