Over three hundred unauthorized structures risk demolition at High Tension in Christian Village, a suburb of the Okaikwei North Municipality for encroaching on Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) reserved lands.
This is because the structures including homes, chop bars, food vendors, Lotto Kiosks, metal containers, drinking spots, shops and churches have been constructed under 11 KV High Tension cables.
The stretch of land spanning from the Golf Hills Road to the Lapaz Community Hospital Annex is set to be cleared for the safety of the occupants.
Quit letters and remove notices written on the walls of the structures from the Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly (ONMA) to the ‘squatters’ have gone unheeded even as the Assembly engages the community today.
A letter dated April 1, 2022 inviting the occupants, opinion leaders among others to the stakeholder engagement read: “the engagement would provide a platform for both the Assembly and the community to discuss and agree on the removal of the unauthorized structures along the High Tension”.
Speaking with the media after a tour of the site on Friday, Rexford Frimpong Personal Assistant to the Municipal Chief Executive said the assembly has on several occasions ordered the removal of those unauthorized structures as far back as 2019, 2020 and 2022 but same has fallen on death ears.
He said today’s meeting is to allow further engagements with the leadership of the community, officials of the Assembly and the ECG adding that the meeting is to further stress the need for them to leave the dangerous site.
Mr. Frimpong noted that the occupants do not have any authorization or permits to be on the land.
Augustine Antwi Yeboah a preacher of the Church of Christ who said his church has been in its current location for the past 15 years disagreed with the action of the Assembly indicating that his church has been in the place before the electricity lines were laid.
He bemoaned what he described as the short notice given by the Assembly for them to move out of the place.
Source: By Kofi Yirenkyi