Henry Quartey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, has ordered the flattening of all fence walls on waterways at the Ramsar SITE at Klagon, near Tema.
The exercise, led by the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), in conjunction with the Tema Metro and West Tema Municipal Assemblies and NADMO, which began on Wednesday, saw heavy joint state security personnel providing security to the operators of the earth-moving machines, who flattened as many fence walls as they could in the first phase of the exercise.
The exercise, scheduled to end on Friday, is aimed at reclaiming and conserving the buffer from all illegal developers.
Before the exercise would commence, Mr Henry Quartey, ‘Accra Commando’, explained the essence of the exercise to the joint security personnel at a parade at the Klagon District Police Command.
“The area for the operation is swampy so I would urge you to take and obey orders from your field commanders. I thank you for your presence and readiness to provide the needed security to the workers,” ‘Accra Commando’ told the armed security personnel.
Turning to the media, the GAR Minister explained that for all the lands at the Ramsar site, about 3,000 acres were acquired by Kwame Nkrumah’s government and entrusted to the Tema Development Company (TDC) Limited.
However, he said about 2,000 acres of the land had been encroached upon with unauthorised buildings “and for me and as a country, I don’t care who sold the land and to whom. What I know is that all fence walls that have eaten into the Ramsar are going down. There is no order from above to halt this very important operation.
“If we don’t do it today, then, I don’t know when we can do it so I am in full support of the operation. Later, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources will address you (media) on the progress of work after this first phase.”
The second phase of the exercise, which would see buildings being razed down, Mr Quartey explained, would follow later after the sector Ministry and Forestry Commission had identified the buildings in the waterways in the buffer zone.
Mr Henry Quartey said it was critical to deal with the illegal developments in the waterways “because we can’t pretend these things cannot be halted.”
