General News of Tuesday, 2 July 2002

Source: gna

Squatters at railway stations to be evacuated - Manager

Mr Divine Kwame Ablerdu, Area Manager of the Ghana Railway Company Limited, on Friday said that the company had plans to evacuate all squatters from railway stations throughout the country.

"In view of the cumbersome nature of the exercise a committee comprising the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) and the company had been set up to find pragmatic measures to ensure amicable solution to the problem on the yards" he said.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Mr Ablerdu said the presence of squatters within and along railway lines was a nuisance to the operations of the company.

He said due to their presence, a train killed an 18-year-old girl along the rails last two weeks saying: "Her death could have been avoided if squatters had not invaded the place." He appealed to the squatters, particularly those who have erected temporal structures, to get rid of them before the exercise commenced.