Man killed in operation to demolish houses at Adentan
A young man was shot and killed by the police for allegedly attempting to stop them from providing security cover for an exercise to demolish about 380 illegal structures on a large tract of land at Adentan Aviation in Accra Monday.
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The incident occurred after the young man, identified as Adjei Akpor, 22, suspected to be a member of a group of land guards, had attempted to attack two of the policemen with a machete.
Perceiving danger, one of the policemen fired a warning shot, which hit the right eye of Akpor, killing him instantly.
Three of the suspects, who tried to flee upon seeing a team of policemen rushing to the accident scene, were arrested and taken to the Greater Accra Region headquarters of the Ghana Police Service. They are Emmanuel Armah and Nii Aryea, both 32, and Tijani Osman, 30.
Land guard cases in Accra
Briefing the press, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Mr Christian Tettey Yohonu, blamed some of the chiefs for the land guard cases in Accra.
According to him, most of the chiefs who did not have the mandate to sell lands but had done so, solicited the services of land guards to protect such lands.
For instance, Mr Yohonu said, an alleged self-acclaimed chief of Adentan, Mr Ernest Nii Oko Kwei, was the brain behind the sale of some portions of the Adentan Aviation lands.
He, however, warned that the police would not entertain any land guard cases this year and would deal with any culprit, regardless of his or her position or status in the society.
Demolition
Meanwhile hundreds of illegal structures and buildings on a 260-acre land belonging to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority at Adentan had been razed down while the owners watched helplessly.
The owners of the structures, some of whom were seen openly wailing, rushed into their structures to salvage their belongings as more than five bulldozers, supervised by heavily armed police officers, demolished them.
Property such as furniture, mattresses, television sets, vehicle spare parts and other personal effects were all littered around.
Some of the structures, which were used as residences, churches and shops, were mostly kiosks, metal containers, temporary and permanent structures, all went down.
Posted on the structures were notifications dating as far back as August, 2013 warning the residents to vacate the land earmarked for development.
Some of the occupants of the structures confessed that they were notified even as late as last week that the demolition exercise would come off but they thought it was an empty threat.
Why the demolition
According to Mr Frank Tackie, the director of The Consortium, a construction company contracted to redevelop the Adentan Aviation land, the government intended to turn that area into a suburban centre to be called the Adentan Central Business District.
“The whole strategy is to help augment Accra’s inadequacies and decongest the region. Places such as Adentan, Ashalley Botwe, Madina, and Legon, would have the necessary infrastructure and social services to improve their living condition,” he said.
Mr Tackie also said since the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority is the legitimate owners of the land, part of it would be used for the construction of an International Aviation Training School and other facilities that would enhance the operation of the company.
He said once the squatters were cleared from the land and the debris collected, the first stage, which included roads, drains, water supply, and electricity would be provided.
“This would be followed by the construction of 3,000 apartments, a shopping mall, hospital, schools, hotels and other business activities that would improve the living conditions of the people in Adentan and its surrounding communities,” Mr Tackie said.
Asked when the actual construction would begin, he said work should have started six months ago but as a result of the encroachment on the land, the government had to give the squatters ample time to evacuate hence the delay.
“Two weeks from today, the land should be ready for major development,” he said.
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