Adwoa Safo flanked by some of the agitated traders
Traders at the Dome market are up-in-arms against government over the extortion of money from them by the taskforce of the Ga East District Assembly, under the pretext of allocating them new stalls.
The market is currently undergoing reconstruction works but even before the project is completed, members of the taskforce are said to be going round collecting various sums of money.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s parliamentary candidate for the Dome-Kwabenya constituency, Adwoa Safo, who made this known at a press conference on Monday with a number of the affected traders, said, “My attention has been drawn to the wanton extortion of money from some unsuspecting market women by some unknown persons who are close to the powers that be, with the promise to give them space upon completion of the project.”
This was after the traders complained to her for intervention.
While appreciating the need for the reconstruction work, the MP aspirant wondered why no alternative place had been designated for the people to sell during the period the market would be closed down, asking, “Where should they go?”
She called on the assembly to, as a matter of urgency, find an alternative which was suitable for the mostly women traders for them to sell.
Adwoa Safo asked government to ensure that they (the market women) did not suffer unduly as a result of a developmental project the government or any individual was undertaking.
“It is disheartening to see how our mothers in the market are constantly going through a daily routine of harassment by the rage of the assembly’s taskforce, asking them to vacate the market and find a place to sell”, she noted.
She said most of the traders would not be able to rent or buy the stalls on commercial rate, noting, “We strongly believe that this will provide a veritable arena for the distribution to be done on political lines which will not be good to the general development of the constituency.”
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ga-East, John Kwao Sackey, however said it was the assembly that awarded the contract to a company by name Nestaco after competitive bidding.
He told DAILY GUIDE only one out of the 20 sheds was currently being constructed by Nestaco, indicating that “they (the traders) will pay some money before the sheds would be allocated to them”.
Under the current circumstance, the MCE indicated, the assembly had not mandated any individual or group of persons to collect money from the traders for the purposes of allocating stalls, therefore anyone doing that was committing a crime.
“If anybody is charging anybody money for a shed, they have to report the person to the police. We have not even come out with any bill or anything,” he said.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu