5 June 2009
IT WAS a scene of emotional drama last Wednesday night at the fire-ravaged Central Market in Kumasi, when angry traders clashed with a joint team of military and police personnel, when the latter attempted to demolish temporary structures erected by the traders to recommence business, after last week Thursday's disaster.
The joint military-police team, which had been deployed to clear the area and restore order, faced fierce resistance from the traders, who swore heaven and earth not to allow the security personnel demolish their structures.
The security men, who went to the scene alongside some officials of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), looked on helplessly as the angry traders, wearing red bands, chanted war songs and threatened to invoke curses on the security team, should they dare touch the structures.
The traders swore that they would rather sacrifice their blood, than allow the deployed force to pull down their structures.
The hasty move by the traders to erect the temporal structures, according to investigations by The Chronicle, follows reports that the authorities were preparing to handover the market to the 31st December Women's' Movement, after its completion.
The traders, according to reports, have dreaded the alleged political move, because they believe that once it gets into the hands of the 31st December Women's Movement, which they argued was a political organisation with strong affiliations to the government of the day, the allocation of the stores after its completion, would be done on a political basis.
They argued that the decision would eventually put most of them, who are not directly associated with the movement, at a disadvantageous position, in terms of allocation of the stores.
They also accused the city authorities of conniving with operatives of the ruling National Democratic congress (NDC) party to lay claim to the management of the market.
After several attempts to get the temporary structures knocked down had proved unsuccessful, the joint military-police team had to leave the scene amidst booing and jeering by the traders.
Meanwhile, a member of the assembly has denied allegations that the assembly was planning to hand over management of the market to the 31st December Women's Movement, saying the construction of the market had been offered to a private contractor called Mr. Asafo Adjei.
The Assembly Member, who refused to be quoted, disclosed that the assembly entered into contractual agreement with the contractor as far back as June, 2008, under the previous government, but could not be executed as a result of lack of funding.
He stated however that following the fire outbreak, it had been agreed by the assembly during its first sitting last Monday, to allow the contractor to carry on with the project, reiterating that the assembly had not entered into any agreement with any organisation concerning the management of the market after its completion.
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