7,000 affected residents of Buoho entreat govt to compensate them before asset demolishing

Affected residents of Buoho, Monwire and Ntiribuoho in the Afigya Kwabre South District are pleading unto the Ghanaian government through the District Chief Executive (DCE), Honorable Christian Adu Poku to peacefully compensate them before demolishing their homes for the commencement of the quarry activities.

According to them, lots of residents whose assets have been affected are in panic for the impromptu decision therefore if the value of their buildings is not paid off to relocate, anxiety would lead them to their graves.

Over 7,000 House structures are set to be demolished for encroachment and the Assembly has officially served demolish notice, on the landlords whose buildings fall about 500 meters to the quarry site at Buoho, Monwire and Ntiribuoho. Per the words of involved residents, they are looking forward to some compensation from the Assembly but such hasn’t been done yet.

A section of inhabitants took the matter to court but the remainder have pleaded to the DCE to consider the hard work they put in to acquire the assets and compensate them to leave the grounds. They begged that the matter at hand for the progress of the West Africa country should not be politicized but the right thing must be done.

“Before mining is initiated, a social gathering has to be made to know whether the people are in support of the project or not,” a resident revealed.

“Take a look at Obuasi, poor roads and infrastructures. Our leaders are telling us that their monies are not for roads but mining. I believe this is the DCE’s personal interest or for people’s gain but even in all, residents must be considered first. The mining activity will disrupt everything here and the charges would affect the health of people.

“They are putting a lot of people into panic because lots of pensioners have settled here. It's not easy to acquire land today, compared to the former days so the government must come again and look at the decision making.

“This is not a village, it’s a developed town but all the same, if they think breaking down houses to establish the company is what they seek, they should pay off everyone,” he added.

A landowner revealed that authorities have assured to let the Valuation Board define the worth of their properties before the payment and until that, they will not give way for any demolition exercise to start.

A landlady defined the leaders’ plans as ‘unfortunate’ for the reason that residents have been abandoned without any proper roads and healthcare to outline their lives and if by reason of excavation trade,  landowners are about to be remunerated to expand activities, then authorities must be well thought out.

She cautioned that if such attitude is not put to a halt, the progress of Ghana will be at a standstill.

“So our leaders have money to pay us for demolishing yet our cost of living is weird. Take a look at our roads, water has become one of our greatest challenges yet they prefer paying us in huge sums for their personal gains,” she said.

“Water runs through our taps only at night and had it not being individuals who own the available boreholes, our life would have been messed up. We have no hospital, poor roads and we depend solely on Afrancho.”

She concluded that nothing regarding their payments has been finalised yet and called on authorities to come out and pronounce what each deserves instead of stalling and keeping people on flight mode.

“All I have heard is the Assembly told us to submit our building permit, allocation and site plan to Kodie.

“I have not been personally told whether they will pay us the monies or not. Every asset owner has his own story to it and we have not concluded anything yet. They should let us know the final outline else we’ll be killed by pressure.”