What was supposed to have been a smooth ejection exercise turned fiery as fire gutted a portion of the slum located near the main drain in Avenor yesterday morning.
The exact place is referred to as “Articulator Station” by many of the people in and around the area. The land is said to belong to the Word Miracle Church International, who have a court order to clear the place.
Adiza is consoled by this policeman
The Police turned up to enforce the order but ,as happens in many of these evictions exercises, the squatters were not too happy with their ejection from the place and two of them were alleged to have set fire to one of the wooden structures.
The fire quickly extended to nearby structures and approximately five minutes after, one could feel the heat from about eighty metres away.
Superintendent Sylvester Boyuo, Operations Commander of the Accra Region, led the operation. He contended that the police suspected the place to be a hideout for some criminals. He, however, said they were there on the day only to enforce the court order.
“The church has a court order to evict the squatters from their property,” he said. “That’s what we are here to enforce”.
There was wailing by some and others just stood there helpless as the demolition went on. Adiza, one of the squatters in the area, did not know what to do with herself as she suspected that the container she lived in had caught fire.
“I did not have anything to wear last year. I lived on things people dashed me and just when I got this container to live in to sell some provisions, my things are burning in this fire,” Adiza lamented.
But Adiza was lucky. The fire was fought quickly enough for her to be able to save her container.
When the fire started, the operations commander quickly called the fire service and also called his office to bring all available towing trucks to tow some of the articulated trucks away in order to make way for the fire service.
The Fire Service responded quickly with a fire tender from the Industrial area in about 30 minutes and another one from the headquarters 15 minutes later. A third fire tender came in shortly after that to make sure the fire was adequately contained.
By the time TODAY left the scene, the two men who were alleged to have started the fire were nowhere to be found. A police constable, who was part of the operation, said he went in with about four of his colleagues to drag them out after they (police) saw them going to an area where people had already removed their belongings.
“The fire begun a few minutes later at the same place we drag them from,” he said.
BY RICHMOND LAMPTEY
