Restoring Tema means the need for change - MCE

Change is necessary if we are to restore Tema to its past glory, says the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Felix Mensah Nii Annan-La.

He made this observation on Friday in at a press briefing at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) to address the recent attacks on TMA task force members who were carrying out an official assignment to evict squatters occupying the frontage of the Cocoa Village in Tema.

“You know most human beings don’t want change, but change is necessary. When we say restoration agenda, we are telling everybody that Tema was in a certain state and it’s moving to a different state now,” he said.

He observed that Tema was moving backwards looking at the way activities were going on in the city “so we need men who are ready to accept the change that His Excellency the President is talking about.”

Reacting to concern of some Members of Parliament (MPs) in Tema regarding the eviction exercise, he said they had a duty to their constituents to ensure they were catered for, so understood why an MP would resist any move to displace squatters.

He hinted that “such things are bound to happen but we have to find a way to talk to them.”

According to him, he had engaged the MP of the area severally on the issue, and the people encroaching were aware that where they had sited their facilities and were doing business was not right.

He said it was necessary to evict them “and I don’t know why any individual would come and contest the assembly. It is our job and we would do it as our stakeholders want it.”

He added that, “I know some of our MPs are not happy. We beg all of them to be part of the change the Assembly is bringing to Tema. We need their help, they shouldn’t stand in our way; we are doing all this and we believe it is going to benefit the entire Metropolis.”

He observed that Tema was a planned city and it was not going to be difficult to get things done right, adding that “everything is planned so it is easy to detect when somebody was doing the wrong thing.”

He said his staff were on top of their issues and knew where structures had to be erected and hinted that they “have not started with issues of wrong siting of containers.”

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the TMA in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) said certain persons had encroached the entrance to the Cocoa Village in Tema and their activities were posing threat to lives due to falling debris from an on-going construction on the site.

Mr. Frank Asante said that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) had written three letters to the Assembly and there was the need to evict the squatters for COCOBOD to do their business freely and to prevent any future calamity.