Kewunor Residents Cry Foul �Over Impending Relocation Exercise

A decision by Trassaco Estates Development Company Limited (TEDC) to relocate some residents of Kewunor, one of the islands in Ada Foah in the Ada East District Assembly to a swampy area near a river has sparked anger among some of the natives. The relocation comes after Ghana Tourist Board gave the green light to TEDC to commence the construction of a first class tourist resort on that said piece of land. A letter of notice by TEDC to the people of Kewunor dated 21st October, 2013 and signed by Ian Morris, Managing Director, made it clear to residents that �the site you are currently occupying was acquired by the government of Ghana in 1974 under the Executive Instrument dated 26th April 1974 for tourism purposes� However, the natives of Kewunor rebutted in an interview with The New Crusading GUIDE, indicating that greater part of what government acquired in that year has been lost to the sea and since TEDC had the machinery and resources, it could reclaim the lost land for what they intend to do with it. According to them, where Trassaco wants to relocate them to is a waterlog area that collects the abundant river water whenever it rains, hence life there would be unpleasant. The people who are mainly fisher folks revealed that even though they had no papers to the lands, they could lay claims on the lands since their forefathers started living there in 1909. Already, there are two beach resorts in the area, where one of them known as Maranatha Beach Resort has built a school for the community from its own revenue and pays teachers as well. The owner is also worried that the school which he built after government�s failure in spite of several pleas would be pulled down in the course of construction of the tourist resort by TEDC. Some assembly members who were equally against the relocation by TEDC onto the said land held that, they were not against development but insisted there should be a human face to their actions, adding that they had not seen and discussed any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the District Assembly and Trassaco for them to have started work by now. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ada East who doubles as a Minister of State in charge of Social Institutions, Madam Comfort DoyoeGhansah, told this paper a month ago that the negotiation they had was for Trassaco to build and hand over the keys to the affected residents, only then could they (TEDC) start their project. She said although she was not part of the negotiations at the early stage, she managed to secure some GH�30, 000 (GH�15,000 each) for the owners of the affected two beach resorts as compensation but they rejected the offer, compelling TEDC to raise it to GH�45,000. She also was clear that she was yet to recover part of the GH�30,000 she gave to the assembly for safe keeping when the two rejected the offer when she realized that they were spending it in bits. In a rather more conflicting situation, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. John Nurudeen Ahortu disclosed on the same day that they had returned all the monies to the MP and that the added amount to the initial compensation was GH�30,000 instead of GH�15,000 as the MP stated earlier. He again confirmed the assertion by the assembly members saying, TEDC had only paid the permit fee of GH�50,000 but the assembly was yet to sign a MoU with them. Confirming the added amount as GH�30,000, Seteve Akwetey, a representative of Trassaco assured those who were going to be affected that they would be transferred into a two bed room apartment before the demolition He further assured Maranatha that the school would not be affected; rather it would be upgraded. Mr. Akwetey explained that aside the 450 direct jobs the project was going to create; it would bring 300 permanent jobs to natives, excluding security guards and life guards. He counseled owners of the two beach resorts to accept the compensation money offered them by TEDC and relocate to the reclaimed lands by the sea side. �We will even help them rebuild their structures for them if they want to�, he added.