Hundreds of buildings within the Sakumo Ramsar Site in Tema will go down today in a demolition exercise meant to free the site of encroachment.
The exercise would be carried out by the National Security, in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC), within the buffer zone of the Ramsar site, in accordance with Section 97 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936).
Section 97 of Act 936 empowers the local assembly to ensure enforcement against unauthorised development of community rights of space.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, who made this known yesterday[October 18, 2022], said the demolition exercise was part of an ongoing exercise to reclaim encroached state lands and also protect Ramsar sites from destruction.
He said the illegal occupants of the Ramsar site had been given more than 70 days’ notice but they remained resistant, so the only way out was to pull down the structures.
“Anytime we speak, they go ahead and build with impunity, and that cannot continue. We are going all out to ensure that buildings that are sited in the core part of the Ramsar site are removed,” he stressed.
Mr Quartey asked the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) and the Ghana Police Service to carry out full-scale investigations into all permits that had been issued for the development of properties within the Ramsar site.
Working with a three-week ultimatum, the security agencies are required to ascertain the complicity or otherwise of the Forestry Commission, the TDC and the Tema West Municipal Assembly in the issuance of permits for such developments.
“If there have to be forensic investigations to ascertain the authenticity of the documents that people claim to have from the TDC, the TMA and the Forestry Commission, it must be done. Anyone found culpable in this matter will be sent to court and made to face the law,” he stressed.
