At least eight traders at the Kumasi Central Market have sued to halt ongoing demolition exercise and the commencement of work on the second phase of the Kumasi Central Market Redevelopment Project.
They are praying the High Court to order the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and construction firm, Contracta Engineering, from commencing the project.
They want to stop the demolition of over 1,500 shops at the trading hub, “having inherited from our deceased relatives”.
The traders maintain their action is in response to failed attempts to get the KMA to provide them with space at the newly-built Kejetia Market to pave way for the commencement of the second phase of the Kumasi Central Market Redevelopment Project.
Court documents show that the KMA having collected rent from them “later called to cancel the grant of stores and asked us to continue operating from our current market place of business until they find an alternative market place for us. Till date the monies collected from us have not been refunded by the Respondent [KMA] after the failed promise”.
Bad faith
The group which has formed the Kumasi City Market Union accused the KMA of acting in bad faith.
“We believe our fundamental human rights have been trampled upon by the KMA… We have been sent home without a single allocation and the KMA is not doing anything about it,” secretary to the union, Richard Boamah, told Asaase News.
He added: “We have done a lot of stakeholder consultations to resolve this issue but it appears city authorities are taking us for a ride.”
Some 1,500 lockable shops would be affected in the demolition exercise.
The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council recently gave the traders up to midnight of March 13 to relocate.
With this new development it appears Ghana may lose a whopping €253 million loan agreement on the project if authorities do not take steps to resolve the impasse.
Jonathan Ofori
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