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Akuapem South Assembly not responsible for sprawling structures along the mountains

The Municipal Chief Executive of Akuapem South, Frank Aidoo, has asserted that the reason for having a lot of uncompleted buildings along the Accra-Aburi stretch at Peduase is because the Assembly is working and controlling development around the area.

Date Created : 7/6/2023 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Dominic Shirimori/Ghanadistricts.com

Reacting to Tuesday's incident where portions of the mountain was washed onto the main Accra-Aburi stretch of the road, he said the Assembly is concerned about the safety of the general public and has been working to avert any unfortunate incident.

It is the reason the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) took the pain to immediately get to work on Tuesday after the incident to clear the road for free flow of traffic. However, the persistence of the rain overnight forced the collapse of the retaining wall at Hill Palace Hotel which was subsequently washed onto the road on Wednesday.

Mr. Aidoo who took the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong to learn at first hand the cause of the problem, said but for the vigilance and pragmatic steps by the Assembly, the whole place would have been filled with buildings.

The MCE emphasized that for about four years running; the Assembly has not issued any permit for development to take place in those areas; adding that because of that a lot of the construction works are illegally carried out either in the night or during weekends to avoid the Assembly officials noticing it.

"So most of the structures you see around here are illegal structures. If we decide to go out there today, we can pull them down; but usually we want to make sure we use the rule of law; we don't want to just get up and get equipment and just pull them down".

Mr. Aidoo said the only reason there are a lot of uncompleted buildings along the area is because the assembly is not allowing them to work; "they have the resources to complete these buildings in record time but because we are stopping them every day, that is why they are not able to complete them" .

He also disclosed that the Assembly has already taken some of these developers to court because they need court order to pull them down to avoid unnecessary litigation that also comes with financial implications to the Assembly.

"All the people here are well educated; people who know what they should be doing; so at the end of it all, what I will say is that we are on top of it and definitely we know we will be able to solve this challenge", the MCE affirmed.

On the specific area of concern, the MCE said the property (Hill Palace Hotel) which has part of its retaining walls broken and washed alongside the earth onto the road has permit; adding that the property was there long before the road was expanded and had portion of its land taken for which compensation was paid.

"At the time Highways should have demolished this building but they didn't do that. Currently we are in some sort of negotiation with the owner; and what he is saying is that once the Assembly can compensate him, he is ready to let it go". According to him, they have been working with the property owner and once they are able to secure funds for the compensation they would pay them off and pull it down.

However, for a short term measure, he said they will work with the necessary agencies and ensure the property owner builds another retaining wall in due course to contain the situation.