Soldiers invade Kumasi Kejetia

A joint Police/Military team marched to the Kejetia Bus Terminal in Kumasi on Tuesday morning to eject some of the driver unions operating at the place to pave way for the reconstruction of the facility.

Driver unions which are operating from Kejetia to the Western Region were ejected under the strict supervision of the security personnel who were armed to-the-teeth.

The drivers were moved to the Abinkyi market for the start of work at the Bus Terminal, which Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, had continually stressed that it must be carried out.

The ejection of the driver unions, DAILY GUIDE gathered, was the beginning of a gradual eviction of all the people operating at the Kejetia Bus Terminal.

The paper learnt that the exercise would continue on Wednesday and the succeeding days, during which other driver unions would also be affected.

Even though the ejection of the Western Region-bound drivers was peaceful, the exercise somehow was met with some resistance in the form of a demonstration by the Ashanti Regional Drivers’ Association.

Members of the association, who were not targeted for expulsion on Tuesday, decided to demonstrate strongly against the Bus Terminal reconstruction.

According to them, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) was not doing the proper thing with regards to the resettlement of the driver unions, traders and hawkers at the Terminal.

Wearing red armed bands and chanting war songs, members of the association were joined by some shop owners and hawkers to protest against the project.

They argued that most of the drivers, shop owners and hawkers would become stranded, in view of the poor manner in which the KMA was carrying out the resettlement process hence, their demonstration.

President Mahama, it would be recalled, had appealed to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to intervene to ensure that the impasse between the KMA on one side and the driver unions and the traders on the other, is settled amicably.

The leadership of the Ashanti Regional Drivers’ Association said they were planning to petition the Asantehene so that he would intervene to ensure that nobody becomes stranded after the ejection exercise.