Sodom and Gomorrah demolition exposes illegal connections
Hundreds of structures at Sodom and Gomorrah, a slum in Accra, were demolished on Saturday by a task force of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), rendering scores of people homeless.
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As early as 6 a.m., bulldozers began pulling down the wooden structures which had served as homes for the dwellers of Accra’s biggest slum.
The task force, with the assistance of the security forces, razed down the structures which were said to have contributed to the recent floods in Accra and stalled the execution of the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project.
The exercise was led by the Chief Executive Officer of the AMA, Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije.
Some angry dwellers in the slum set fire to some structures that were not affected by the exercise while others whose shelters were the first to be demolished salvaged some items from them.
A few, however, were able to remove some of their belongings from their shacks before the demolition began.
Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) put out the fires.
Anger & frustration
Angered by the exercise, some of the affected persons rained insults on the AMA and the government, insisting that they had nowhere to go.
"We are also Ghanaians. Destroying our items and asking us to leave here is not fair. Where do we go,” Mohammed Abdullahi, who was almost in tears, lamented to the Daily Graphic.
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Another victim of the exercise, Simon Damanjah, a mechanic who had three cars he was working on destroyed in the course of the exercise, said he had no choice than to commit suicide as he did not know what to tell the owners of the vehicles.
"Right now my life is in danger and I say this because I do not know where to get the money to pay my clients whose cars I was working on,” he said.
On seeing the television cameras, some of the affected dwellers shouted, "2016, NDC will lose; No Vote".
Why the exercise
Mr Vanderpuije told journalists that one of the objectives of the exercise was to expand the natural borders of the Korle Lagoon, to allow it to flow.
He said the dwellers had built structures along the banks of the lagoon and filled it with sawdust, thereby hindering the flow of water.
"Today we have hundreds of structures that have been constructed on the Korle Lagoon. The lagoon has been filled almost to the brim with sawdust and structures have been built on them. It is not safe for the people who are living in those structures", Mr Vanderpuije said.
He said given the rainfall and the flood that was recently recorded in the capital, if the AMA did not act now another flood might result in a heavier loss of lives.
Mr Vanderpuije explained that the long-term objective was to construct the needed drains for water to flow into the Odawna drains and Korle Lagoon and then finally into the sea.
He was, however, quick to add that only structures located on the banks were being destroyed in the exercise, adding, "our objective today is not to interrupt anybody who is living on land but to give the Korle its natural space".
Asked if he did not think that the exercise might result in loss of votes for the government during the next election, Mr Vanderpuije replied in the negative, adding that “if the right thing is not done, we may all not live for the next election".
" We are in an era of climate change. Nobody ever thought that the level of rain that we had three weeks ago could come upon us. So it’s not a matter of elections; it's a matter of doing what is right to save lives now", he said.