Workers of CSIR demonstrate to demand protection of land owned by centre

Scores of workers of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Thursday morning demonstrated at one of its research centres at the Airport Residential Area in Accra to demand action by their leaders to stop encroachment on the Centres lands.

The demonstration follows a similar one held last week on one of the Centre’s parcels of land at Pokuase.

Government plans to resettle displaced residents of Old Fadama, popularly known as Sodom and Gomorrah in the area.

But staff of the CSIR are bent on resisting the move.

They say the land cannot be used for the resettlement because the Institute uses it for research purposes.

Speaking to Joy News’ Matilda Wemegah, the workers called on their leaders to step up and take drastic measures against the planned resettlement of the people there.

Although a court has placed an injunction on any activities on the said land, the Municipal Chief Executive of the area is said to have already erected site poles on it.

The workers want this to be stopped but say they cannot wait for the due process of the law because “it takes time”.

Though the land is to be used to resettle the displaced Sodom and Gomorrah residents, the workers say they do not trust that that will be its sole purpose if it is released.

“They want to go ahead and encroach and build mansions and later come and tell us we should negotiate. We want everybody to understand that we are not sitting down as workers of the CSIR for this to happen and then we go and talk about it.

“We want to make sure these elements are stopped right now and here”, one worker said.

The workers believe that the Institute's mandate will be affected negatively if the land – which is supposed to be used for animal research purposes – is given out.