Several structures were pulled down by the Tema West Municipal Assembly
Kiosk Estates, one of the popular slums along the Accra Tema Motorway, is no more.
The Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA) on Wednesday pulled down the over 200 makeshift structures mostly kiosks, which make up the slum.
The slum was inhabited by thousands of 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 which stormed the slum at about 0600 hours to demolish the structures, most of which contained properties of occupants.
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 nearby residents and themselves as they lived in very poor sanitary conditions.
She noted that enough notice was served the kiosk estate dwellers to vacate the place before the demolition, explaining that several notices were served on them in 2018 yet an additional three- month grace period was given them upon a plea for extension from them which also elapsed in March 2019.
Meanwhile, victims of the demolition had 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 bye-laws on the siting of such structures.
