Group cries foul over Kotokuraba Market stores allocation
A group calling itself Concerned Assembly Members of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) and some traders at Kotokuraba Market are up in arms against the Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan and the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Ernest Arthur, accusing them of irregularities in the allocation of stores at the market.
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They said although they had been the original occupants of the stores as far back as 1960, their names had been expunged from the list of the beneficiaries of the stores.
They, therefore, served notice to hold an unprecedented demonstration to be followed by a court action if the irregularity was not reversed.
Addressing a news conference in Cape Coast yesterday, a spokesperson for the group, Mr George Justice Arthur, said: “We have gathered here once again to express our displeasure regarding how the Kotokuraba Market allocation is being handled by the Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Ernest Arthur and some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).”
Mr Arthur added that traders who were allocated the stores were given a week’s ultimatum to move into their facilities or forfeit them.
Original occupants
“There are a lot of people who have been given the lockable stores illegally, who were not original occupants, have never owned lockable stores in the market whose names have been used fraudulently to substitute the original owners,” he alleged.
The spokesperson also alleged that the authorities had been selling the allocation to people who were not the original occupants, thereby contravening the laws of the assembly and the initial agreement the assembly had with the traders.
“Again, some monies are charged by some members of the illegal committee formed by the MCE, Mr Ernest Arthur, and the Regional Minister, enticing or cajoling some of the traders they would be given an advantaged place in the market,” he said.
Some of the traders, who claimed to be original occupants, thronged the news conference with their receipts to support the claims.
Background
The facility was inaugurated in November last year after which a committee was constituted to allocate the stores to the traders.
However, some traders who felt they were being sidelined took the assembly to court and secured an injunction on the allocation made.
On assumption of office, the Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, asked that the case be withdrawn from the court for an amicable settlement.
He subsequently reconstituted the committee to reallocate the stores.
However, the concerned assembly members are accusing the minister and the new committee of allocating the stores to new people and leaving them out.