‘No tension in Dome market’

The Ga East Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. John Kwao Sackey, and the executives of the Dome Market Traders Association, have described as a hoax, story making rounds in the media by the Dome Elders Council (DEC) that tension is currently looming in the market.

According to them, the group has been hiding behind the name, cadres, members of the 31st December Women’s Movement and the National Democratic Congress (NDC,) to peddle lies about them since the re-construction of the market.

“Our traders in the market are still doing their usual selling without any attack meted out to them by anybody; so which part of Dome market was there chaos?,” they asked.

The group led by Auntie Ama Afiyo in the Monday, July 15, 2013 edition of Today under the headline: Tension in Dome Market…“MCE cited; accused of being selective” had urged President John Dramani Mahama to remove Mr. Kwao Sackey from office; accusations leveled against him in the said publication included misappropriation of the assembly funds and disrespecting of displaced-traders in the market.

The group alleged lack of transparency and gross exploitation by the market queen, Madam Evelyn Abla Sebie, as a result of the total neglect of the DEC by Mr. Kwao Sackey.”

However, Mr. Sackey and executive members of Dome Market Traders Association stressed that these are baseless accusations which directors of DEC and faceless traders have been tossing into the public to embarrass them.

And also to direct the attention of residents of the municipality from the numerous development programmes they had initiated in the market.

Speaking to Today, Mr. Kwao Sackey stated that the Dome market is not collapsing under his stewardship and appealed to the directors of DEC and traders to desist from creating tension over the market and verify issues with the assembly on the true state of affairs.

‘We have not asked anybody to take money from the traders. All those who go out to collect revenue issue receipts to that effect.

…We wish to categorically state that we are not discriminating against anybody in the market and also not selective with the people who man the market, including the Elders Council,’ the MCE added.

According to him, the land occupied by the Dome market which was started by the then Ga District Assembly was for some time now a subject of rightful ownership between the AMOFAFILA, Phyto-Riker (GIHOC) Pharmaceuticals Limited and the Ga District. He said the court in August 2005, ruled in favour of Phyto-Riker as the rightful owners of the land and granted an order to demolish all structures on the land covering a 60-acre plot, including the market.

‘In January 2010, when Phyto-Riker decided to implement the court’s order to demolish all structures on the land (inclusive of the Dome market,) he [Mr.

Kwao Sackey] personally intervened and after series of meetings with the directors of the Phyto-Riker, their solicitors, Menka-Premo & Co, the Lands Commission and residents (encroachers) entered into an agreement to regularise their stay on the land.’

Mr. Kwao Sackey noted that having sensed the danger the exercise was going to pose to properties on the land on his assumption, he invited the original owners of the land [Phyto-Riker (GIHOC) Pharmaceuticals Limited [AMOFAFILA] and negotiated with them in which they came to an agreement.

He disclosed that a judgment debt of GH¢20,000.00 was also awarded against the assembly for encroaching on the land.