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Ashaiman woodworkers, traders issue 10-day ultimatum to govt

Ashaiman woodworkers, traders issue 10-day ultimatum to govt

Woodworkers and traders at the Ashaiman Timber Market have given a 10-day ultimatum to the government to halt an impending demolition of parts of the market.

Parts of the market are to be demolished to pave the way for the construction of the $388 million Tema-Akosombo railway line.

The Ghana Railway Development Company (GRDC) and the contractors are said to be undertaking preparatory works to clear structures and parts of the timber market said to be within the project’s right of way (RoW).

Protest

However, the members of the Ashaiman Timber Market Woodworkers Association and the Ashaiman Timber Cargo Drivers Association have described as unfortunate the failure of the authorities to engage the association to reach a compromise.  As a result, members of the two groups on Tuesday staged a protest to register their displeasure.

Wearing red armbands, members of the association failed to open up for business and marched through the market amid drumming and singing. Customers who were at the market to procure wood items and other related products were left stranded as the traders also joined in the protest march.

They accused the Tema Development Corporation (TDC), the Ministry of Railways and the Ashaiman and Kpone Katamanso municipal assemblies of failing to notify the association and further carrying out any form of sensitisation for the affected members. 

Processing Plants

According to the Chairman of the Woodworkers Association, Mr Anthony Partey Asare, carrying out the planned demolition would mean that about 30 machine shops where wood was processed for sale and other carpentry works would be completely wiped off.  In effect, he said the nerve centre of the market would be destroyed.

Mr Asare said while the nature of the project required that the association should be engaged by the relevant bodies so as to come out with modalities that would ensure job retention, “officials of the institutions only came to the market to demarcate and situate poles while marking the structures to be demolished”.

The situation, he said, prompted the association to petition the TDC in August but officials of the corporation in a response to the petition on October 4, dismissed the association’s concerns and subsequently re-demarcated the size of the land from 8.52 acres to 8.05 in a new site plan attached to their response to the association.

Mr Asare indicated that the association had since 1991 been paying ground rent on the 8.52 acres, for which the TDC issued receipts, and said the most recent payment was made in September on the 8.52 acres of space.

“At what point did officials realise that the land size was 8.02 and no longer 8.52?” Mr Asare asked, and said the siting of various shops, stalls and processing plants were demarcated by the TDC in 1991. 

“At the time of the demarcation, we were told that the boundary between the market and the old railway line was 50 feet on both sides; we are, therefore, taken aback by the decision of officials to reduce our market size, thereby pushing the structure to about 100 feet from the lines,” he complained. 

Job losses

The chairman further complained that the demolition of the area housing the processing plants would mean the loss of 3,000 direct jobs and over 5,000 indirect jobs.

He noted that the posture of the TDC and the Railways Company suggested that they intended to push their way through “although we have demonstrated our willingness to dialogue should they approach the association”.

“We are not against the government’s efforts to revive the country’s rail system, but in doing so, must they deny people of their livelihood?” Mr Asare further asked.

The Chairman of the Timber Market Cargo Drivers Association, Mr Thomas Ahiadomey, said some 1,500 drivers and their assistants were likely to lose their jobs if the exercise, in its present form, was carried out, without any form of arrangement to relocate the machine shops.

 

Writer’s email: [email protected]

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