Authorities at the Achimota School are greatly worried as encroachers have virtually taken over the school’s land.
Commercial and residential properties are fast springing up on the land.
DAILY GUIDE’S investigation revealed that a number of makeshift structures were being put up by slum dwellers who are reported to be victims of the recent demolition exercise organized by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) at Old Fadama (aka Sodom and Gomorrah).
Aside the slum dwellers, churches and some politicians are also alleged to have encroached on the school’s land.
This paper’s visit to the school on Wednesday further revealed that structures of some churches like Crown Harvest International Ministries and Light House Chapel International had been built on the school’s land.
It was also gathered that a plush mansion allegedly built on the Achimota School land by a former minister of education in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, was put up without permission from authorities of the school.
According to DAILY GUIDE sources, about 500 acres of the school’s land have been taken over by the encroachers, some of who are cultivaing cassava and maize.
The authorities are seriously worried that there might be no land available in the future for expansion.
They are however, unable to take any action against the encroachers as sources say they have been barred by government from acting on their own.
The paper was informed that the government had failed to take any action against the encroachers.
The authorities of the Achimota School declined to comment on the issue when this paper approached them, saying that they had not been granted permission by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to speak to the media over the issue.
However, a staff of the school who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity, pointed out that each time management of the school takes steps to evacuate the encroachers from the land, they (encroachers) run to court for an injunction and that when the injunction is granted by the court, they seize the opportunity to quickly put up their buildings.
Conflict
On November 26, 2016, officials of the Accra Forestry Commission and personnel of the Ghana Police Service – two state institutions who are supposed to protect the Achimota School – clashed with each other.
Officials of the commission had attempted to prevent a real estate company called Plantinum Properties from ‘illegally’ developing the Achimota School land when the police moved in to defend the company.
BY Melvin Tarlue