Squatters on a 10-acre piece of land at Avenor earmarked for a school building have been given a two-week ultimatum to vacate or face eviction by the City Authority; Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
The directive is to pave way for the construction of a school building in the community to save children from walking long distances to attend school at Adabraka, Nima and New Town because there are no schools in the area.
The Avenor School project was abandoned 10 years ago resulting in the takeover of the land by squatters who used it as places of abode, trading activities and the rearing of cattle.
Mayor of Accra, Hon Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey who served the eviction notice when she visited the proposed site at Avenor in the company of Presiding Member of the AMA, Hon. Alfred Asiedu Adjei and Member of Parliament for Okaikwei South, Hon. Dakoa Newman said the absence of a school facility in the Avenor community was detrimental to the development of education in the area hence the need for the eviction.
She noted that according to records the AMA had informed the illegal settlers through notices to vacate the land but had refused hence the eviction notice.
She reiterated the importance of educating children and how the free education policy introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had encouraged most of the youth to return to school.
The Presiding Member for the AMA and Assemblyman for the Avenor Electoral area, Hon. Alfred Asiedu Adjei disclosed that the current Member of Parliament for the Okai Kwei South Constituency had secured some funding for the fencing of the land ahead of the commencement of the project stressing that the eviction was appropriate citing non-availability of schools in the vicinity as justification.
He recounted that the school was closed down before he became a member of the Assembly in 2015 adding that the then existing school facility on the said land was closed down by the Ghana Education Service due to flooding in the area and the deplorable state of the building.
He noted that there had been a series of engagements between the squatters, himself and the then Member of Parliament for the Okai Kwei South Constituency, Hon Ahmed Arthur on their relocation.
“During the last administration the former MP, Ahmed Arthur and I went round to speak to the people, I have spoken to the squatters on the land…We have had a series of meetings about the land that they know it’s government land and that anytime the government deems it fit to reconstruct they all need to move… I can say 80% of the squatters agreed to move and we are not negotiating with them, we have done all the deliberations and meetings with my former MP and the current MP for the area,” he said.
