Managing Director of TDC, Alice Abenawaa Ofori-Atta
HUNDRED AND sixty-five persons who were rendered homeless following the demolition of their structures by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) at Adjei-Kojo, a suburb of Tema in the Greater Accra Region have been settled.
A total of 11.50 acres layout was used to settle the displaced victims with each person getting 50ft x 50ft size of plots to put up a 2 bedroom expandable apartment.
The layout inculcated sites for complementary uses such as public school, police post, vehicle terminal and church site.
Allocation of plots to the beneficiaries was done based on the management policy of TDC and regulations of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) in respect of granting building permits and they must strictly adhere to the building proposed by TDC.
Each beneficiary was asked to pay an amount of GH?500 to cover TDC documentation and administrative process for TMA permit.
It would be recalled that following a demolition exercise carried out by TDC in 2014 at Adjei-Kojo, settlers at Promise Land (Sraha East) and Solomon City in Adjei-Kojo had their buildings including completed and uncompleted structures flattened rendering several of them homeless.
A document in possession of DAILY GUIDE revealed that TDC acquired the land in 2004 for development but had to postpone it due to prolonged litigation which led to injunction being placed on the land.
After chalking victory in the case and about to start development, TDC noticed that there were some encroachments on a portion of the land.
Without notifying the encroachers, TDC demolished the structures made up of completed and uncompleted houses; an act which attracted public outcry and sympathy.
Government, as a result, directed that on humanitarian grounds, the squatters be allocated plots of land on TDC property to develop.
A Taskforce was subsequently constituted to propose modalities for the resettlement of the squatters and after a careful scrutiny, 165 displaced persons were okayed and were given their allocations.
However, the Chairman of Displaced Squatters at Sraha East, Mr. Francis Dzivenu told this paper in an interview that not all displaced persons got their land back.
He said the criteria used by TDC did not favour all displaced persons, stressing that only those who had a completed house demolished were considered leaving the rest to their fate.
But TDC explained that the currently agitating persons only want to take advantage of change of government, explaining further that all those affected had been compensated by a committee which finished its work several months ago.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema