Kantamanto traders resist planned demolition
A planned demolition exercise scheduled to have taken place at the Kantamanto Market area in Accra last Tuesday was fiercely resisted by the traders.
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Even though the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) had given the traders a one-week ultimatum to vacate the area, the traders said the demolition of their stalls would deprive them of their source of livelihood and compound their financial problems.
The exercise was to have been undertaken by the AMA and the police.
Snippets of unconfirmed information picked up by the Daily Graphic indicated that the AMA had sold a chunk of the land, where the market is situated, to private developers.
Traders worried
Some of the traders expressed their dissatisfaction with the one-week ultimatum given to them by the AMA, saying the time was too short for them to pack out, even if they had to leave the place.
“We have been asked not to sell on the pavements or by the road side. We are managing to stay in business, but now they want us to leave. They should relocate us to an appropriate place,” an agitated trader interjected.
Meanwhile, attempts to get to the city authorities for them to speak to the issue was unsuccessful as those approached were tight-lipped on the matter.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), who was not in the office at the time the Daily Graphic visited the assembly at 2 p.m., did not answer phone calls to him to ascertain the facts.
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Background
In 2014, the Kantamanto Market, which is home to imported second-hand clothing and shoes, was razed down by fire, causing the traders to lose goods and properties running into millions of cedis.
The congested nature of the market and the lack of fire safety and security measures make it prone to fire outbreaks.
Following the mishap, the AMA promised to compensate some of the victims and also reconstruct the market into a modern facility that would prevent the rampant fire outbreaks.
Accordingly, GH¢1,465,035 was paid out to 800 of the victims by the government through the Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre ( MASLOC) to enable them to revive their businesses.
Meanwhile, the promise to reconstruct the market is yet to be fulfilled.