Thousands of illegal residents along the Accra-tema motorway continue to count their losses as they pick up pieces of wood from their broken kiosks.
The Tema-west municipal assembly demolished their structures on Wednesday, leaving them and their children homeless.
The exercise was undertaken on July 3 after a grace period given the quarters to leave had elapsed.
The victims had no option than to spend the drizzly night in the open, some with babies as young as two weeks.
To keep themselves warm in the open, they set fire close to themselves, which in itself was dangerous because they could have been burnt while asleep in the midst of dry plywood and other flammable items.
The homeless victims claim that some criminals took advantage of the situation to rob them of their valuables including cash.
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Majority of them, mostly factory-hand workers had gone to work, only to return to meet their places of abode reduced to wreckage.
Officials of the Tema-west municipal assembly destroyed their homes under the supervision of armed military officers.
Vincent Blah Quarshie, engineer and head of works at the assembly told Pulse Ghana that the exercise was primarily for the safety of the victims themselves, coupled with a directive from the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and other security services to clear the area in question for security reasons.
He explained that the high-tension electric cables under which they dwelled could kill them tragically if proactive measures were not taken to forestall it.
Quarshie said that the assembly had given the victims sufficient prior warning in addition to one-on-one engagements with them, but they were recalcitrant, hence the drastic action.
Unlike other similar demolitions where the squatters return after realizing that the authorities have gone to ‘sleep’, the Tema-west assembly said it has put in place measures to ensure that no illegal structures are erected in the cleared area.
It has also warned of more demolitions along the motorway in the coming days.
