CMB Market structures pulled down leaving traders dejected
Scores of structures were brought down yesterday at the CMB Market in Accra in a demolition exercise that is shrouded in controversy.
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The exercise has put the livelihoods of hundreds of petty traders on the line.
It was carried out by a private developer, Mr Stephen Ntim of Pioneer Merchants Company Limited, who is said to have acted on a court order.
Details of the court order that warranted the demolition could not be established because the man at the centre of the controversy declined to speak on the issue, saying, he was not ready to share such information with the media.
Observation
When the Daily Graphic got to the scene at about 7:30 a.m., a bulldozer was seen pulling down kiosks, metal containers and other structures that served as accommodation for some of the traders.
While the structures were being pulled down, carpenters were busy raising a wall around the land to make it inaccessible to the public.
The mood was that of despair and dejection as hundreds of the affected traders were seen counting their losses.
Some of them wandered on the Agbogbloshie Road that connects CMB to Graphic Road, causing heavy human and vehicular traffic.
Personnel from the Accra Regional Police Command were there to supervise the exercise and maintain law and order.
Claims
Drama unfolded at the scene when some persons who identified themselves as hailing from the Mantse Ankra royal family of Ussher Town in Accra, stormed the area in protest of the demolition exercise.
According to the group, Mr Ntim had no right to claim ownership of that parcel of land because it belonged to their family.
The spokesperson of the Mantse Ankra family, Asafoatse Kofi Apetrepe, said the family would take legal action to stop Mr Ntim from continuing any activity on the land.
He alleged that the Mantse Ankra family leased the land to the Ghana Railways Company some years ago and that the family still owned the land.
"Mr Ntim claims that he has won a court case against Ghana Railway Company but we want the public to know that we will not sit down and allow just one person to deprive thousands of people of their source of livelihood," the spokesperson stressed.
Asafoatse Apetrepe also claimed that since 2012, Mr Ntim had approached the Mantse Ankra royal family with juicy offers to support him claim the land from Ghana Railway Company but those offers were turned down.
"He even brought in some influential people in Accra to intervene for him but we stood our grounds because we do not want to deny the thousands of traders and their families their source of livelihood for one person's benefit.
"Today, if he is demolishing the market because he claims that he has a court order, we will not take the law into our hands but we will use all available means to get him off this land," he stressed.
Concern
The spokesperson for the Hawkers and Petty Traders Association of Ghana, Mr Ohene Mensah Kakrah, described the action of Mr Ntim as unacceptable and called on the government to intervene.
"I remember that in 2012, Mr Ntim wanted to claim ownership of this area but the former Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mr Okoh Vanderpuiye, stopped him.
"We do not understand how he popped up all of a sudden to carry out this demolition exercise without even serving any notice. The President and the city authorities have to intervene to save these petty traders," he said.