Parliament investigates Adjei Kojo demolition
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has directed the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing to investigate the demolition of houses at Adjei Kojo, a suburb of Tema, by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and report its findings to the House for it to take a decision on the matter.
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He also directed that the Chairman of the Committee on Parliamentary, Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Mr Alban Bagbin; a former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr E.T Mensah; and the Chairman of the Committee on Lands and Forestry, Mr Albert Abongo, who is also a former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, be made part of the team.
Mr Adjaho gave the directive after the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema West, Ms Irene Naa Torshie Addo (NPP), had made a statement condemning the exercise carried out by the TDC.
The statement drew comments from other members of the House, many of whom agreed with Ms Addo that the action by the TDC was irresponsible.
Ms Addo said the action of the TDC must not be repeated anywhere in the country.
She said it was unfortunate that at a time when the government was soliciting help from international organisations to build houses for workers, a government agency would demolish houses built by people struggling to eke out a living in these difficult times.
Some MPs disagree
Some MPs, notably Mr Sampson Ahi (NDC, Bodi) and David Tetteh Assumeng (NDC, Shai Osudoku), however, sought to suggest that the House was making a fuss over the issue.
Mr Ahi said the residents of the area had sought legal redress at the courts and lost, a situation which gave the TDC the right to embark on the action.
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Mr Assumeng said a similar exercise had been carried out by the TDC elsewhere in 2006 but that had not generated any national debate and not being raised on the floor of the House and wondered what was special about the Adjei Kojo case.
They were both stopped in their tracks by Mr Adjaho, who said Ms Addo, as a representative of the victims of the demolition, had every right to raise the issue on the floor of the House.
He also advised Mr Ahi not to go into the legal merits of the case on the floor of the House.
Mr Adjaho’s intervention prevented the issue from degenerating into partisanship.
Ms Addo’s statement
Ms Addo said there were steps that needed to be taken before any demolition exercise was carried out but the TDC failed to adhere to those regulations.
The TDC, she said, needed to perform an asbestos abatement exercise, remove hazardous or regulated materials, obtain the necessary permits, submit the necessary notifications and disconnect utilities, among many others, but it failed to do all that.
“Mr Speaker, there are many questions one needs to ask. How did the residents acquire the land? How did they build their houses and live there for seven to 10 years without being noticed by the TDC? Why were the structures not pulled down at the foundation stage? How did they connect electricity and water without permits? Should the conduct of the TDC and the TMA go unpunished when they have been collecting penalties and property rates from the so-called illegal residents? What reliefs were available to such residents, even if refugees from neighbouring countries are taken care of in this country?” she asked.
Ms Addo said the effects of the demolition exercise at Adjei Kojo could not be quantified because it did not only displace people by making them look like refugees in their own country but also shattered the dreams and aspirations of their children.
She said children and adults now slept in the open, a situation which made them vulnerable to the bites of mosquitoes, snakes and other insects.
“We cannot also overlook the vices that could rear their heads, such as rape, theft and so on. Children are not able to go to school any longer.
Food, shelter and water have now become a burden for a family which hitherto was able to fend for itself without support from anybody. The open defecation which is now the norm for the displaced citizens should be of great concern. This has its own attendant ailments and effects on the people,” she said.
Ms Addo said the use of extreme force by the security operatives could lead to serious riots which might affect the peace and stability of the country.
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Contributions
Contributing to the statement, Mr Assumeng, after he had been stopped by the Speaker from proceeding with the argument that the House was worrying itself unnecessarily over the demolition, said the matter needed to be referred to the leadership for action.
The MP for Asawase, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka (NDC), said Parliament needed to look at the root cause of the problem and not deal with the symptoms.
He said the House needed to ascertain who sold the land to the residents, who approved the building permits, why the officers who should have ensured that the buildings did not spring up in the area failed to discharge their duties and who connected water and electricity to the area.
The allegation that property rates were collected from the people, among other things, he said, needed to be investigated.
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He also dwelt extensively on the frustration people went through to enquire about land at the Lands Commission and said that problem was partly responsible for the situation Ghana now found itself.
Alhaji Muntaka said it was painful for people to toil for years to put up houses, only for state organisations to pull them down in a few minutes.
He wondered why the TDC should look on while people put up structures on the land and then move in later to demolish them.
He said any official of the TDC or any other organisation found to have given approval for the construction of the buildings or whose actions and inaction had led to the problem in Adjei Kojo needed to be punished.
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The MP for Sunyani West, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah (NPP), said it was unfortunate that innocent people bore the brunt of the inaction of public servants.
He said there were laws regulating development which district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies were under an obligation to enforce but had failed to enforce which resulted in such demolitions.
He said the length of time used to process applications was one of the factors that made people develop their plots of land without the requisite documents.
Mr Awuah urged the assemblies to work hand in hand with the traditional authorities to ensure that development was controlled.
He also called for a “synchronisation” of the laws establishing the TMA and the TDC, “so that we have one agency controlling development, otherwise we will continue to have these problems”.
The MP for Nadowli/Kaleo, Mr Alban Bagbin (NDC), said the law establishing the TMA and the TDC were “conflicting and needed to be looked at again”.
He said over the years, Human Rights Watch had mentioned Ghana as a country which abused human rights by demolishing houses and added that the tag was a bad one for a country in which democracy thrived.
“The time has come for us to take up this matter and deal with it once and for all,” he said.
The MP for Bimbilla, Mr Dominic Nitiwul (NPP), asked, “If the area where the demolition occurred is an illegal settlement, why did the utility companies collect bills form the residents.”
Adjei Kojo case
The Adjei Kojo case, he said, needed not to be taken in isolation and added that such demolitions occurred all over the country on a regular basis.
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu (NPP), said it appeared as if both parties (the TDC and the residents) were not being candid on the issue.
He said the demolition was carried out in a cruel manner and wondered if the TDC could not have waited for the residents to retrieve their items before the exercise.
He said it was sad that the Land Administration Project (LAP) which was instituted to deal with problems associated with land acquisition had failed to address the problems.