In an attempt to solicit support from Parliament to humanely deal with slum dwellers at Old Fadama in Accra, the Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Dominic Nitiwul on Tuesday told the House that most Members of Parliament who hail from the three regions of the north, grew up in that slum popularly called Sodom and Gomorrah.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VM4DE3l7V0eZw9EZYU28hx0FxtfFDYmb”]He made the statement on the floor to support calls for the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to be summoned to answer questions on a recent demolition of structures in the area.
Dominic Nitiwul, who is the Member of Parliament for Bimbilla revealed he also grew up in the slum.
“Mr Speaker some of us grew up there. Many of the northerners sitting here came through that place before they became big people as we see them today. It is true Mr Speaker, many of them.”
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) demolished the structures to allow the dredging of the Korle Lagoon to prevent recurrent flooding in the area.
Angered by the demolition, some of the resident took to the street to protest against the exercise.
Some of them also stormed Parliament House to express their displeasure and in the process, destroyed some property there.
Issue roadmap for demolition
He however called on the AMA to immediately stop further demolitions and release a road map for the exercise.
“So the AMA should stop the demolition and give us a roadmap, nobody is saying they should not do their work. But because of lack of planning you leave the people at the despair of the weather and you are actually leading them to commit crime,” he intimated.
According to the MP, failure to issue a roadmap could create security problems saying, “the way they are going about things it could create a security problem in the country. No wonder Parliament was broken into yesterday. If MPs were in the chamber, we would not know what would have happened.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana