Traders cleared from old Kasoa market to ease traffic
Traders operating at the old Kasoa market site have been cleared from the area as part of efforts to deal with the traffic situation in the area.
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The exercise was a collaboration among the National Security, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly.
In the course of the exercise, an old public toilet built in 1974 was demolished, together with signboards that had been mounted indiscriminately along the road and in the median of it .
According to the Awutu Senya East Municipal Chief Executive, Dr Adams Nuhu, last Friday’s exercise was to ensure the free flow of traffic.
He said drivers, especially the commercial ones, were compelled to park and pick passengers by the roadside because of the occupation of the old market site by the traders. To sustain the exercise, he added, the assembly’s taskforce would be sent to the place permanently to prevent traders from coming back to operate in the area.
While some traders admitted that the place was no longer a market, others kicked against the exercise by the assembly.
A trader, Madam Ama Esoun, said the traders were supposed to be operating at the new market but because some people were not going to the new site “we also decided to come here”.
Another trader at the market, Ramatu Issa, said maintaining a small market at the old site was necessary to take care of those who could not afford to go to the new market every now and then.
The Secretary of the Kasoa New Market Traders Association, Mr Haroun Tetteh Mensah, however, supported the action by the assembly and the other collaborators.
“It was necessary because they were posing a nuisance to the users of the road and the environment. There is no market in the area and those traders there can be classified as squatters, he said.”
By Emmanuel Bonney & Dominic Moses Awiah