Some unknown persons have invaded a fenced site at the affordable housing project site in Koforidua where tonnes of iron rods purchased for the construction of the project are being kept.
The iron rods, which have been abandoned at the site of the stalled project for years, have been left at the mercy of rains and thieves who have cut through the wired fence constructed for the safekeeping of the building material.
A visit to the site by Citi News and some personnel from the Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Eastern Regional Police Command led by Operations Director, DSP Kartey Otumi revealed the loss of a significant amount of the rods.
DSP Kartey Otumi expressed shock about the rate at which the building material were being stolen and called on the assembly to take immediate steps to safeguard the material.
“We identified these abandoned iron rods about four months ago, we lost count of the number of iron rods here when we came here four months ago but today I can see more have been stolen”.
“We met one Cole here who happens to be an engineer who was working with the consultant. So when we told him what we have observed he was made to clear the weeds here which he did and burnt them so after the area was cleared I realised from my estimation that it was about 120 tonnes because I know that each bundle is a tonne and each grouping here is about 20. So when we quantify them you can clearly see we have over 120 tonnes here”.
“Initially we thought it was something small so that after the weeding we will help the engineer to bring them to the police station but we realized that we cannot afford to bring all this to the station. So we left them here so once a while, as part of patrols we routinely come around to check on them to see if they are not being stolen but from my last visit it’s obvious people are still stealing them”.
The site aside being busy and infested with reptiles has now become a safe haven for criminals and other lawbreakers.