The signals from Adjei Kojo where the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) demolished many houses last week are not good enough.
Naturally, the TDC has vehemently defended its action, saying the residents were encroachers who had no title to the land.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has extended humanitarian relief to the displaced people who are said to number about 800 from 167 households.
Government officials were on hand to empathise with the victims of the demolition exercise.
They include the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Isaac Ashai Odamten, who received the items on behalf of the displaced people; the NADMO National Co-ordinator, Mr Kofi Portuphy, and a former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who was the parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2012 elections for the affected area.
Mr Portuphy bemoaned the manner in which the exercise was carried out, while Mr Ofosu-Ampofo has described the demolition as a humanitarian catastrophe and called for an immediate halt to the exercise.
However, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, has expressed dismay at the insanity permeating land acquisition in the country and charged persons crying for the victims of the recent demolition exercise by the TDC to rather commit to fighting the canker of impunity in the country.
The discordant voices of government officials leave many people confused as to whether there is any consistent policy on land administration in the country.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema West, Naa Torshie Addo, expressed outrage at the action of the TDC and served notice that she would support the displaced people to take legal action against the TDC.
Nonetheless, the Daily Graphic had expected government officials, with the mandate to ensure that the rules are followed, to speak with one voice, so that the culture of impunity can be tamed.
The TDC may be right in the action it took to reclaim land from encroachers, but the demolition exercise was very high handed, displacing about 800 people.
The Daily Graphic will be the last to encourage the utter disregard for rules and regulations in our society and allow the culture of impunity to take root, but if laws will work in our country, then the institutions of state and government appointees must sit up.
It is instructive to note that the Daily Graphic is not oblivious of the story of the aborted Olympic Stadium at Abeka, near Accra, where the actions and inaction of state officials led to a situation where land earmarked for the construction of a modern Olympic Stadium was encroached upon by state officials and certain prominent individuals in the country.
Never again should any state institution be allowed to visit the Adjei Kojo mayhem on the people, no matter the circumstance.
