TDC did nothing untoward — Parliamentary Select Committee

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing has said the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) did nothing untoward in the demolition of houses at Adjei Kojo, a suburb of Tema.

It said members had been quite indignant about the exercise but after a meeting with the TDC yesterday, it was of the view that the exercise was in order.

The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Mr Francis Adu-Blay Koffie, told the Daily Graphic that the meeting with the TDC had enabled the members to ascertain the full facts and added that the corporation had provided documentary proof of ownership of the land in question.

He said the TDC handed over to the committee, papers which pointed to the fact that the land had been acquired by the government in 1952.

Also provided to the committee, he said, were copies of Legislative Instrument 1989, (LI1468) which empowered it to “construct roads, public buildings, markets; prepare and execute housing schemes; develop industrial and commercial sites; provide public utilities such as sewerages and street lights and carry on such other activities as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of its object.”

The LI, he added, empowered the TDC to carry out those activities on any of its lands.

Mr Koffie,  noted that from the documents presented to the committee, the encroachers had taken the matter to court and had lost at the High Court and the Appeal Court and added that since they (encroachers) had failed to provide any proof of ownership, members were of the view that the TDC was right in taking the action.

However, he said, some members were of the view that the action should have been carried out with a human face.

Mr Koffie, who is also member for Prestea/Huni Valley, explained that from documents provided, the residents and some individuals who claimed to be the chiefs of the area went to court in 2003 to claim ownership of the land but lost. In 2008, they lost an appeal and the court gave the  TDC the authority to develop the land.