Some residents of Blemagor in the Okaikoi North municipality have bemoaned a planned demolition exercise by the assembly of illegal structures and houses to pave way for the construction of a drainage system to prevent flooding and destruction of life and property during the rainy season.

According to the residents, they will be displaced if the planned demolition exercise is carried out.

However, another group of residents insist that the targeted structures must be razed to allow the construction of the drains to prevent flooding during the rainy season.

Spokesperson of the residents supporting the demolition exercise, Sidi Talikai told Class News that: “When it rains, there is no way for the water to flow, so, we spoke to the Assembly to construct a gutter, they claimed they were constructing one. And if you’re diverting, do you want to divert it to my house? No way, so, the law should take its course.”

The residents who are against the exercise, on the other hand, say it will render them homeless.

An angry resident who spoke to Class91.3FM said: “I’m angry because they claim our house is in the way of the road, and I’m saying I can’t tell the direction of the road. When they constructed this small gutter, they ensured it was located behind someone’s house, but now that they are working on our site, they want to demolish our house, about four houses, what for?”

“As for this world, if you are poor, people will exploit you because what they’re doing is not right”, he said.

Another resident who was in tears stated: “This man came here with some people, they came to stand here and they mentioned that they have demolished this place to the end of the gutter. We are the ones living here, where do we go? We have no money to rent a place. The contractor said he would demolish the wall to enable him to go ahead with the project but they refused, they insisted on demolishing our entire house”.

Meanwhile, the Urban Roads Engineer for the Okaikoi North Municipal Assembly, Mr Frederick Asare, while reacting to the delay in the demolition exercise, indicated that the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area needs to give the go-ahead first.

Mr Asare said: “The project that is going on there, the assembly doesn’t know anything about it until they confront the problem. Under normal circumstances, the project should pass through the assembly and the MCE should know. The MCE has the power to go and demolish.”