Taking the fight to the right quarters
Last week we heard about yet another of the disturbing, recurrent destruction of houses in a nation battling an alarming housing deficit recently confirmed by the sector Minister.
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Mr. Collins Dauda, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, was reported by Radio Ghana on October 15, 2013, as saying at the ‘Meet-the-press’ session that Ghana needs a minimum of 85,000 housing units annually for the next 20 years to make up its housing shortfall.
According to reports, on January 22 and 23, a demolition exercise in the Tema West Constituency left homeless hundreds of people in the suburbs of Adjei Kojo and Promise Land.
The night before, they went to bed as homeowners and people with shelter and the next day they had been added to the world’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) statistics.
However the difference is that in the case of these IDPs they are not victims of war or a conflict situation; neither were they displaced by a natural disaster. They are people who had built houses on land allegedly illegally acquired, land that belongs to the Tema Development Corporation (TDC).
Despite the spirited protests by the MP for Tema West, Irene Naa Torshie Addo and other sympathisers, the bulldozers of ‘Operation Halt II’, went ahead to raze the structures – and it was said that more demolitions were to follow.
Excerpts from the media reports:
Daily Guide: “Armed military and police team ...from the National Police Rapid Development Taskforce, fired several warning shots to disperse crowds (that) attempted to resist the TDC taskforce’s attempt to pull down what they termed illegal structures.
“Some residents ... managed to salvage some of their properties, but were yet to get safe places to keep them, since all the houses in the area had been earmarked for demolition .... Other residents (were) unable to salvage anything, as they were out of their homes when the exercise began.
“... Individuals who were putting up structures claimed to have acquired the lands from the traditional heads, who also claimed the land was a stool land.”
Daily Graphic: “The land was acquired in 1952 from the traditional authorities of Nungua, Tema and Kpone and leased to the TDC to develop (Tema into) a model township ....
“Over the years, the TDC has lost thousands of acres of land to encroachers, while the government land covering over 740 acres has been taken over (illegally) at Adjei Kojo, Gulf city, Bethlehem and the Ramsar Site near Klagon.
Ghanaian Times: The MP, Mrs Addo, “said she was ready to challenge the demolition exercise .... She promised to liaise with some colleague lawyers to pursue the matter in ... court, until ... the right thing is done.”
The TDC’s Public Relations Officer, Dorothy Asare-Kumah, told the Graphic that most of the residents had built on waterways and in areas earmarked for roads, while others could not produce genuine documents covering the acquisition of the land.
Ms Asare-Kumah, had earlier told the Daily Guide that “the activities of land guards and encroachers (had prompted) the need for National Security intervention.” She explained on PeaceFM that TDC workers who have tried to stop the developers had been attacked by land guards.
In its issue of January 27, the Daily Guide quotes TDC Managing Director, Mr. Joe Abbey, as stressing that the “management did everything humanly possible” to warn the people but they were ignored.
I do not dispute the right of the TDC, or any other land owner, to evict trespassers and encroachers. However, the demolition exercise raises some questions:
If the TDC could put together an effective demolition task force, why could it not have such a team in place for pre-emptive strikes and stop construction at the first sign of the intent to build? Evidently some of the people had been there for long periods and this should not have been the case.
And why allow mixed signals to be given to encroachers?
For, ironically, in the midst of the demolition, Graphic reporters spotted an official of the Electricity Company of Ghana who had come to distribute bills to occupants of the affected area!
If the “encroachers” were being serviced by the state utility companies, would that not have been taken as confirmation of having the right to be there?
I also wonder at the callousness of the exercise. Couldn’t the demolition team have given the hapless people a little time to clear out their possessions before the structures were pulled down? They may be encroachers, but surely the exercise could have been carried out with a human face.
How are they to manage now in these hard times, these fellow Ghanaians, including those who have spent their lifetime savings and pension funds to ensure accommodation for themselves and their dependants? One can empathise with their yearning for a life free from shylock landlords and landladies, just a place to call a home of their own.
Some of them now have to turn to the already funding-challenged National Disaster Management Organisation, or their equally needy relatives, for assistance.
Undeniably, there is the tendency in this country of authorities looking on, seemingly unconcerned, as people encroach on their land and proceed to complete buildings on that land. The situation is allowed to go on for years, during which period more and more people join the first settlers.
Then one day the land owners wake up and spring into action at their eviction best.
When that happens, naturally public sympathy is with the illegal occupants and encroachers and the original owners are made to look bad because they are seen as heartless. We have seen this happen over and over again, but should this continue?
Even now, as sympathy flows towards the Tema West victims, there are certainly many other such situations all over the country, potential Adjei Kojos. Why can’t we have some ground rules applicable everywhere during such exercises?
For instance, before any demolition of structures on illegally acquired land, structure owners could be given a notice well publicised in the media.
There should be no need for surprise or unannounced evictions by legal owners.
Secondly, on the day of the exercise, those still there should be given at least one hour to take out their possessions.
Notably, it is always the vulnerable people who have been sold land by people posing as, or claiming to be, the land owners who are punished by the loss of that investment as well as their other sweat and tears possessions.
True, buyers should beware, but what about those who sold them the land? Legally, are both buyers and sellers of stolen property not equally guilty?
Why is it that we rarely hear of action against those who sell government land illegally? Why are they left free to continue selling other parcels of land to other vulnerable people?
So, after tackling the buyers, when is the TDC going to take the fight to the right quarters, those who sold the TDC lands?