More than 70 squatters facing eviction from a parcel of land in the Ho Municipality say their eviction is politically motivated. The residents say they were being evicted because of their alleged affiliation to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). They said pleas for extension of the deadline for the eviction and compensation have fallen on death ears. Claiming to have lived on the land at Awudome Anyinawase for over 20 years, the residents have appealed to government to intervene. The Ho Municipal Assembly says it wants to construct a market structure on the land. One of the squatters, Emanuel Frimpong told Joy News the assembly refused to cite the market at a proposed place. He said they were given just a day to remove their structures or have them demolished by a bulldozer. But the Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Badra says the claims of the squatters cannot be true. According to him, the eviction notice was issued the people long before the National Democratic Congress came to power. “My understanding is that they have given them enough time to move from there so that these development projects can go on.” He stressed that the presence of the people on that parcel of land is impeding the progress of work on the market project. “They are (living) in unauthorized structures built on government property, that place has been earmarked for a market long ago and I have not seen any building they are all kiosks; they can be moved to somewhere else,” he stated.