Tenants occupying the Old SECKO building at Ekuase have reiterated calls on authorities to exercise restraint in evacuating them from the building.
According to them, times are hard, and finding a place to rent is not easy to come by, especially in this economic turmoil.
The tenants say they have lived in the building all their lives with their families, and being forced out of the building is unfair treatment towards them.
They have been given until September to move out of the building to make way for the demolition exercise.
Uncle Paul who has lived in one of the rooms of the building interacting with Beach News during a visit said he doesn’t see anything wrong with the building and pleaded for more time to vacate the place.
“We are not financially ready to leave, next month is too close for us to leave. The structure is not as weak as purported. Foreigners come here often and they are offered a place but indigenes like as a been kicked out. We are appealing to our Member of Parliament to come to our aid. I voted for him because of my affiliation with his party. We hereby plead with him to help us out”
According to them, they are ready to refurbish the building should authorities give them the nod to continue living in the building.
” The building can be renovated. It’s currently in this state because of the nearness to the sea
We can renovate the building and pay for it but at the moment, we are being asked to leave so we are pleading with authorities to give us more time. If not for this reason, we would have renovated it long ago,”
The Sekondi-Takoradi Metro Coordinator for the National Disaster and Management Organization, Mr. James Obeng noted that it’s been three years since the inhabitants were notified of plans to demolish the building.
According to him, the demolition comes on the back of a decision taken by the Metropolitan Security Council of the Assembly.
Mr Obeng said, ” We can’t wait for something to happen before we take action. We asked them to leave a couple of years ago. This year alone we have confronted them twice already. Some people have left but others are asking for more time so they can re-locate. Since 2017 we have.”
