Traders furious as AMA demolishes wooden structures

Officials of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have demolished newly erected wooden structures being used by traders to sell at Kantamanto, central business district of Accra.

The exercise is said to have happened in the early hours of Sunday.

Traders there are angry describing the exercise as a breach of an agreement they reached with city authorities at a recently held meeting.

Evans Ofori Atta, Vice Chairman of the Second-hand Clothes Sellers Association at Kantamanto, told Joy News he was at church when the information reached him about the exercise.

He was livid by the sudden exercise, and faulted the AMA for that unilateral decision.

What he found surprising was that, he said, the AMA had not complained about the new structures put up by the traders.

According to him, there has been a steady dialogue between the Association and the Assembly and could not fathom why the latter would carry out such an exercise without giving them even a hint.

Joy News’ Abena Oppong who visited the market reports that pieces of wood, apparently from the structures, have been left scattering all over the place.

She gathered that the AMA asked the traders to put up tables, but some traders went ahead to construct shelters.

Nevertheless, the affected traders were very furious when Joy News interacted with them.

The entire market was razed down by fire early this month destroying properties running into thousands of Ghana cedis. City authorities are said to have authorised the traders to put up makeshift structures pending permanent redevelopment of the place by the government.