Demolition victims react to CHRAJ report

  Stories from Sebastian Freiku Two landlords and a landlady who petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) against the “unacceptable demolition” of their premises by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in 2009 have reacted to a directive by the commission. CHRAJ has directed the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to pay monetary […]

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Stories from Sebastian Freiku

Two landlords and a landlady who petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) against the “unacceptable demolition” of their premises by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in 2009 have reacted to a directive by the commission.

CHRAJ has directed the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to pay monetary compensation to the victims of a demolition exercise undertaken by the assembly somewhere in August 2009.

The Commission, per the directive dated October 19, 2016, and signed by the Regional Director, Mrs. Mercy Larbi, said the proposed compensation to the complainants should be fair, reasonable, and commensurate with the demolished buildings, in the interest of justice.

The directive follows the Commission’s preliminary investigations on the strength of Article 218 (c), 17 (2), (3) and 18 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 7 (1) of the CHRAJ Act (Act 456) into the matter

But Mahamadu Ahamadu, Alhaji Abdullai and Sala Seidu, the complainants, have disagreed with the directive.

They explained that the most appropriate statutory body to deal with the matter is the Valuation Division of the Lands Commission, and not the KMA, against which the complaint was made.

The complainants, therefore, want CHRAJ to reconsider its decision, and appropriately direct the Lands Commission to act accordingly.

CHRAJ initial investigations established that about 80 buildings were identified as having been illegally constructed and earmarked for demolition, but only eight of them were eventually demolished, and that the demolition exercise and eventual  eviction had deprived the complainants and their dependants of places of abode, where they had lived since 1970s, without any resettlement arrangements by the  KMA.

According to CHRAJ, owners who had their buildings pulled down were duly paid some compensation, notwithstanding the fact that those buildings were built without permits, hence the directive to the KMA to do same to the complainants, in the interest of justice.

 

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