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Mr Boye Laryea, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly, has cautioned squatters in the Municipality over their weak habitation structures and poor attitudes towards the environment.

He said: “The victims are squatters who find it offensive when you try to evacuate them from their places of abode. When you try to evacuate them, they ask you, so where do we go to stay?

“Why should somebody die because of somebody’s mistakes? Being the MCE, sometimes I go round advising people that you cannot live in certain areas because they may be dangerous for you.”

He said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, following Tuesday’s downpour, which led to the deaths of five people in the Municipality.

Mr Laryea explained that many of the squatters often throw away heaped rubbish into waterways and drains to be carried away whenever it rains- an action that prevented the easy flow of running water.

“One of the gentlemen, who escaped death in the flood, said he is a Kente weaver from Ho. So I asked him why he relocated to Accra when he only sleeps in kiosk here. I even suggested that he goes to Ho, continue with his work and find a shop in Accra to supply his things for sale.

“So it is difficult to deal with this matter, I mean tragedies from downpour until we change our mindsets,” he said.
The MCE said together with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), they were still looking for a pregnant woman who had been missing since the downpour.