Residents Angry Over Compensation

Some of the residents

Property owners along the Apimanim junction- Elubo road in the Western Region have vented their spleen on government for the non-payment of compensation for their properties which were demolished to make way for the construction of the international road.

The 110-kilometre stretch is a World Bankfunded project which was supposed to have been completed by January 2015.

The angry residents claimed that their properties were destroyed to make way for the construction of the highway that passes through the communities to Elubo.

The disgruntled residents on Wednesday stormed the forecourt of SKYY POWER FMin Takoradi in their numbers to put their grievances across.

They chanted war songs as an innuendo to the Ghana Highway Authority for what they described as daylight robbery.

They lamented that they have been displaced and have nowhere to lay their heads since 2008 when their properties were destroyed.

Some of them claimed to be perching with friends and relatives.

They asserted that even though the project was almost completed, there was no sign of them receiving their compensation.

According to them, they went to court to seek for an injunction on the rest of the project till payment of their compensation was fully made.

However, to their utmost fury and disappointment, the case had been adjourned for three times by a Sekondi High Court with the explanation that the judge presiding over the case was indisposed.

Project Director Reacts
Mr Felix Kwakwa, the Project Director of K2 & Associates, the supervising engineering consultants on the project, denied the assertion by the residents, stressing that the compensation due the people had been paid.

However, he indicated that the complaints were basically that the amount offered was meagre.

The project director made the disclosure when the Roads Minister, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, visited the project site recently.

The minister, accompanied by heads of department of the ministry, paid a working visit to the area to ascertain the challenges militating against the completion of the project.

The project director explained that although the payment was made in 2014, the assessment had been done in 2009 and reassessed in 2012.

He said so far the government had paid GH¢12.5 million to property owners for their properties and crops demolished to make way for the construction of the road.