The Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Chief Executive says the Assembly intends surcharging owners of some properties which were demolished over the weekend to pay for the cost of the exercise.

The Tema Development Corporation (TDC) over the weekend demolished about 67 houses at Nautical, near the Regional Maritime Academy University in the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipality.

Mr. Daniel Amar Amartey, in an interview with Citi News said that the Assembly incurred a lot of cost in carrying out the demolition exercise.

Mr Amartey noted that the Assembly will go after the property owners and have them prosecuted for putting up unauthorized structures on a Government property.

Some of the victims told Citi News that as many as 67 completed and uncompleted houses were demolished by the Assembly without prior notice or any court order.

The land apparently belongs to the Maritime Academy.

But one of the victims, Mr Ebenezer Ayaim whose 10-bedroom storey building was demolished over the weekend disputes that claim.

“It’s a blatant lie, whoever said that is a blatant liar, you can go and find out, I have the master plan to the Nautical University that they are talking about, the land does not extend to the portion where my building is…you can go to the Nungua Chiefs and they will give you the master plan…they will show you where the Nautical university land ends, then you can compare it. So what are talking about? Mr Ayaim said.

But the Municipal Chief Executive said that the Municipality did not need a court order to carry out the exercise.

He noted that the property owners would not only be arrested and prosecuted but also made to pay the cost borne by the Municipality in carrying out the demolition.

“Infact we are even looking for the owners so that we would take them to court and they will pay for the cost of the demolition”

He added that the complaint from the victims that they were not given any prior notice before the demolition is absurd because they had been warned severally that they were encroaching on government property.

“Those people are lawless, when you warn them to stop work, the more they build. It has cost a lot of money in undertaking this exercise. The time has come for people to actually pay for the cost of these demolitions” He said

Mr. Daniel Amar Amartey further added that they did not need any order from the court before undertaking the demolition exercise since this particular exercise was scheduled for December last year but was withheld due to a court injunction.

“This exercise would have taken place somewhere on the 14 of December last year, we mobilized to the site only to be told there was an injunction on the land” he said.

sourece: citi fm