KMA restrained from evicting traders at ‘Dr Mensah’
The Kumasi High Court presided over by His Lordship Efo Kossi Kaglo, acting as a supervising High Court judge, last Wednesday placed an interim injunction on the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), restraining it from evicting traders at Dr Mensah, which is close to the "Boiler" market enclave.
The exercise was to allow for the construction of a three-storey market facility.
Hundreds of women, beating drums and yelling, invaded the Kumasi Appeal Court premises causing disturbances.
The court asked the traders to continue to occupy the facility until the determination of the substantive matter.
Contractors for a private developer mandated by the KMA, Nat Uprising Company Limited, has already begun developing portions of the structure to build stalls, shops and open sheds with auxiliary facilities.
Demonstration
The traders, clad in red attires, also stormed the premises of the KMA on their way to the court premises, creating heavy vehicular traffic in the main business district.
Carrying all kinds of their working equipment, some of the women went to the extreme by lying on the bare ground, asking drivers to run over them.
The Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Godwin Okumah Nyame, told the Daily Graphic that the place had been given to a private developer to work on but there were issues with it.
"As I speak, they are locked up in a meeting trying to resolve all the issues associated with the project before any decision is taken," he said.
Concerns
In an interview with the media, the Secretary for the Boiler Traders Association (BTA), Mr Felix Oppong, said the group was made up of law-abiding citizens that was why it resorted to a court action rather than taking the law into its own hands.
According to Mr Oppong, the traders at the supposed Dr Mensah to the Boiler area stretch, where all kinds of food items where sold, said an attempt to put up the structure would deny them their livelihood.
The traders said they would not be able to pay for the stalls if built and were content with their current places of work.