Slum dwellers now live in fear

Slum dwellers in the country’s capital appear to be living in fear after the sudden demolition of structures by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), TV3 has gathered.

A visit of TV3’s Odelia Ofori’s to Abuja, a slum in Accra, on Tuesday, September 9 suggested that many of the dwellers there are sitting on tenterhooks given the sudden manner with which the AMA carried out the exercise in Mensah Guinea, a slum in Accra.

“We have to be ready because if they have demolished other slums, they can do so here too,” a resident told TV3.

The Assembly last week demolished structures at Mensah Guinea, claiming it is the cause of cholera cases in the municipality.

Most residents have been rendered homeless.

But those in Abuja say they secured the land from the Ghana Railway Company through legal means.

“They gave the land to us in 1986. It was then a dumpsite,” a resident told our reporter.

Some say they pay monthly rents ranging between GH¢80 and GH¢300 to the Company and so, will fall on the Company if the Assembly attempts to pull down their structures.

Attempts to get the Company to respond proved futile.