"Sodom & Gomorrah" residents sue state

Squatters at Sodom and Gomorrah have taken the state to court over the drowning of four men during a dawn raid by military and police two weeks ago. An Accra High Court would hear the case brought by the Centre for Public Interest Law, CEPIL, against the Accra Metropolitan Authority on behalf of dwellers at the Sodom and Gomorrah slum. CEPIL is seeking an injunction to restrain the AMA from forcefully evicting the squatters from the slum, sited on the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project.

The AMA says the slum dwellers need to be evicted since they are obstructing the Korle Ecological project a situation, which allegedly costs the nation about $74,000 every day. CEPIL is also raising a case in court in connection with the military/police swoop on the slum at dawn on the 5th of June, during which the dwellers claim they were brutalised.

The exercise ostensibly to rid the slum of suspected armed robbers, led to the drowning of four men, who fled and attempted to cross the Korle Lagoon, which had overflowed its banks following early morning rains. CEPIL says the squatters rights to privacy and human dignity was violated. The Attorney Generals department has been joined as a co-defendant in the matter.