Residents around the Association International School, near Accra Airport, have expressed displeasure over a 22-storey building under construction in the area.
According to the complainants, the building, by a Turkish Construction Company has no work permit and the construction poses a threat to residents.
At a media briefing in Accra, head of the Association International School, Audrey Doryumu said efforts to bring the various agencies involved have proved futile.
She added: “Ayawaso Municipal Assembly came in, they gave them 8 weeks to restore the damage that the excavation had done, this has not been completed. Ayawaso West have not taken them to court for breaching their order, we haven’t seen the police taking criminal proceedings against them for blocking the public highway and we know the police were here in July and nothing has been done. so its almost like we have no faith, no confidence in government agencies. The ministration is not effective, it is not efficient, they are not enforcing the regulations, they are not enforcing the law and we feel the people have been compromised.”
“The debris, the dust, the air conditions in the school are coming out regularly because the dust is just too much in the atmosphere. People are having chest infections, a lot of children are going home because it causes asthma, and even just the threat of having that kind of building just in close proximity, obviously no consultation has been done,” she added.
A Resident and a Lawyer, Nana Adjoa Ackom-Mensah has called on her fellow residents to fight for their rights. ” We need to fight for our rights. The authorities are taking us for granted and shirking off their responsibilities.
A lawyer and resident in the area speaking after the meeting lamented that “this matter really concerns me because there are so many government agencies that have been informed about this illegal construction, the lack of an excavation permit, no building permit. The EPA has been notified, the ministry of roads, the land use and spacial planning authority, civil aviation, etc. The Ghana police have been on-site and nobody has done anything.”
Story By: Mabel Adorkor Annang
