Ashaiman Municipal Assembly pulls down 50 houses

The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA) on Wednesday pulled down over 50 houses at Apostolic-Ashaiman, rendering scores of people homeless.

The victims claim their houses were pulled down to make way for a big car park for churches in the area.

The Wednesday morning exercise, which was carried out under a heavy police presence saw the ASHMA taskforce and a heavy duty machin,e demolishing the houses built of wood.

Some victims told atinkaonline that they had been living in the area before all the churches sprang up and that it is wrong for the churches to lay claim to the land. According to the victims, they had lost their homes because the Assembly wants to construct a car park for the churches in the vicinity.

A vast part of the area in question happened to be a refuse dump in the 80s and was eventually cleared after which churches acquired plots of land. 65-year-old Frederick Asamani said he was born and bred in the area when the mountain of refuse was a popular scene in the area.

Whilst some of the victims stood by their belongings to ward off criminals, others were busily gathering some of their pieces of plywood.

The Public Relations Officer of ASHMA, Adu Gyamfi, told Atinkaonline that the lack of political will by the two previous Ashaiman MCEs to eject the illegal occupants, is responsible for the false claims by the occupants.

He explained that the demolished buildings stood on the land earmarked for road works, explaining that notices were served to the occupants in 2010 to relocate.

"This MCE has called the bluff of the residents and has done what is proper for development. Very soon, the construction of drains will start, after which the road works will begin.

"If we refuse to overlook some of these political threats from our electorates, we cannot develop as a nation," Mr Gyamfi added.