Food vendors threaten Filling Station

EMPLOYEES of companies and residents behind a Total filling station near the King Takie Tawiah overpass in Accra fear the activities of food vendors and squatters at the place could one day result in a fire outbreak.
A slum, made up of food vendors, squatters and traders, is gradually emerging on the strip of land behind the filling station and the employees as well as resident of the area fear the vendors’ use of fire near the fuel could spark fire one day.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the issue, a source at the Total filling station who wished to remain anonymous said "fumes and fire don't match".
“We are currently increasing the height of our fence wall as a preventive measure against any eventuality and also to prevent them from jumping and dropping things inside," the source added.
That, he observed, was however not enough to prevent the mounting threat posed by the vendors’ fire from possibly escalating into a fire outbreak in the area.
The Production Manager of Aisha Fabrics, a cloth manufacturing company at the place, Mr Franklin Dzandza, said the situation was worrying to the companies in the community.
Aside the fire threat that their activities pose, Mr Dzandza said the place was gradually becoming a breeding ground for criminals.
"Just last week, they duped someone here,” he recalled, adding that one of the supposed patrons of the food vendors "even used my name to falsely collect money from our accountant and we have still not been able to  identify him."
According to him, most of those persons normally claim they were at the place to buy food or transact businesses with any of the squatters but in actual fact they use it "as a step gap to tap information and later penetrate us. They just play smart on us and it is really worrying."
Mr Dzandza added that it was not health wise for the squatters to have been there because of the health risks they pose to the employees, the residents and themselves as well.
He addedd that the employees had complained of the issue to the sub-metro officials who came to pick the waste generated, they promised to relay it to the AMA but nothing concrete had since been done.
Mr James Goka, Director of the Osu Klottey Sub-Metro in charge of that area, said the issue had not come to the attention of the sub-metro, but promised to detail officers to examine the emerging situation at the place.
Some of the squatters and vendors whom the Daily Graphic interacted with said they were sacked from the place in 2007, when the country was to celebrate its 50th jubilee but had since not been given any further instructions to vacate the place.
They, however, agreed that the workers around want them out of the place "but because they cannot do it that is why they have left us here.”